


A Million Stars Apart

by SerenePhenix



Series: Looks like you might be one of us [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alien Culture, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Chronic Illness, Cultural Differences, Families of Choice, Family Feels, Follows the main events of season 2, Friendship, Gen, Hawaiian Hunk (Voltron), Hurt/Comfort, Korean Keith (Voltron), No verbatim retelling/ novelization of season 2, OC, Politics, Rating because of teenagers being teenagers with potty mouthes, Sharing a Body, Spoilers for Season 2, Terminal Illnesses, Time Travel, Worldbuilding, genfic, they/them pronouns for Pidge
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-10
Updated: 2017-04-15
Packaged: 2018-09-07 04:37:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 24,459
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8783410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SerenePhenix/pseuds/SerenePhenix
Summary: Lance usually could deal with a lot of things: being whisked away by a sentient alien ship together with friends, his hero and a rival, becoming part of an intergalatic war he had never known was even taking place, getting separated and reuniting with the closest thing he had to family in space...Yeah, it was not nice but he could take it.-----After surviving another incident with a malfunctioning wormhole, Lance finds himself in a position that might push him to his very limits.There are a lot of things he is unsure of but he knows with certainty that he does not wish to fail Allura or Coran in their quest to save the home they've lost.





	1. ERIDANUS - THE CELESTIAL RIVER

**Author's Note:**

> This thing is the AU of an AU. I know it does not make sense. Please just bear with me for a while.  
> It kind of takes place in the same universe as "Looks like you might be one of us" but it's independent.
> 
> I hope you like the introduction to this ride.
> 
> A fair warning: This story will be riddled with OCs. It's also unbetaed, so sorry for any and all mistakes.

After the first wormhole incident, Team Voltron had hoped and prayed that they would never ever again find themselves torn apart in such a frightening manner.

Lance had thanked whatever deity or dumb luck had made sure he and Hunk ended up on the same planet together.

It had been great to finally encounter mermaids even though it was the wrong planet (now more than ever, he was ready to explore the depths of Earth’s oceans once they returned) and maybe the fact that an evil, giant worm had tried to mind-swish them had been a bit of a downer but in the end it all had played out well. Lance got his buddy back, kicked ass, discovered a part of Blue that had both him and his girl preening and finally reunited with everyone.

He had always known that Pidge was a great genius, even if he preferred to nag them instead of just openly admitting it, but he never would have dreamed that they could single-handedly save Coran and Allura from a looping wormhole and get them all back together. And they had managed to do it with a pile of garbage! If he was not bound by surrogate brotherly duties, he would have openly gushed maybe.

Good thing though that they had found Shiro and Keith in time. It had not sat well with Lance to see the man stuck in the cryo-pod, far too pale and sleep disturbed by nightmares and pain (nightmares that still seemed to disturb Shiro’s rest even now).

The moment their leader stepped out of the pod, Lance could feel the worry in his chest alleviate greatly. When they were all in that bay, hugging and touching and welcoming their friend back, he had felt at home for the first time since leaving Earth’s orbit.

But right now, Lance knew perfectly well that he was not going to have an epic fight™ with his best friend at his side, that there was not going to be any sort of glorious revelation about how much it meant to be reunited with your friends because right here, right now, Lance knew that he was all on his own, that once the wormhole collapsed around him there was no way that the others would be in the same predicament.

He had fucked up and he knew it. He was the last one to enter the wormhole- a wormhole Allura had powered up through sheer force of will if her strained voice and hurried commands had been anything to go by.

He had ignored his teammates’ shouts for him to hurry and Coran’s warnings, driven by the desire to make sure that the smaller fighter aircrafts would not get through.

By the time Blue broke the swirling and sparkling surface of the wormhole, it had been too late. He had watched as the portal fizzled and shorted out, this time not from corruption but from simple lack of energy.

And it was nothing like that one time where purples and reds had swirled madly around him, rushing by in a dizzying and nauseating cacophony.

He had been too surprised and pumped full of adrenaline from their battle to truly feel terrified back then, things happening far too quickly for him to grasp the full meaning of what was to come.

Now, with the knowledge what a collapsing wormhole meant, Lance could feel terror trickling inside him like an icy cold, sticky substance clinging to his core as he put all his weight into steering Blue.

His Lion echoed his fears. Her roars were deep and jarring, her anguish about the impending separation from their pride making him physically ill.

Whatever Lance caught sight of beyond the cockpit was a mess of indigo, black, white and blue. There was nothing to give him direction, to give him a sense of up and down. They were tumbling and hurtling through whatever was left of the metaphorical bridge connecting him to his team, the safety belts cutting painfully into his skin and muscles as he was being tossed around in his seat.

Closing his eyes was the only option Lance had left as he finally gave in and let out a horrified scream. Whether he actually cried for help he couldn’t say – Blue’s panic and the loud screeching of countless alarms going off drowned out his voice.

There was a sense of disjointedness Lance had not felt upon the first collapse, a feeling that something was being slowly torn away from him, out of his body, something he had no idea had been there to begin with until it was about to be taken from him.

Yet now, as whatever it was he was losing seemingly dislodged under the strain, Lance gave a pained gasp, trying and failing to draw breath when it felt like his lungs had collapsed, trying to hold onto his vision tunnelling, trying to grasp onto that strong encompassing presence that was Blue when…

-

When Lance awoke, the world felt off-kilter. Gasping like a drowning man breaking surface, he surged up into a sitting position and regretted it immediately. His vision swam, sending him back down onto his mattress. He gave a low, drawn-out groan as he tried to fight the nausea creeping up his throat and the ache spreading through his joints.

God, he hadn’t felt this bad since having suffered from the flu as a kid; although it probably paled in comparison to the bomb incident in the Castle of Lions. It was kind of a blessing that he had been too out of it to really remember what it had been like and he sure as hell was not keen on finding out.

The nausea roiled inside him like a thrashing animal, urging him to forcefully inhale and exhale through his nose. He was not sure what might happen if he opened his mouth just yet. _His skull was pounding._

His hands found a soft comforter and he held onto it with a vice-like grip, anything to ground him as he buried his forehead into the giving surface of his mattress, anything to stop the spinning and this general feeling of being stuck in a whirlpool.

What was the last thing he could remember? His brain obviously was not being cooperative at the moment as it rewarded his efforts with a hot stabbing pain but an undiluted feeling of terror was shaking him both in body and mind. He squirmed in discomfort, concentrating on his breathing again.

The almost soundless hiss of a door was lost to him and he nearly jumped out of his skin when someone put their warm hand between his shoulder-blades, making him relax involuntarily.

“It’s alright. I’m here.”

Lance was sure his heart gave out. His eyes flew open, drawn to the person having sat themselves on his bed. He had to be dreaming. There was no way that what he was seeing was truly happening.

Allura’s white hair was framing her face which was drawn in a sad frown, her cheek-marks somehow sticking out because of it. She was clad in a pale-blue nightgown with those strange magenta flowers adorning the cuffs of her sleeves.

Her eyes positively glowed in the dark. It was impossible to look away from those softly glowing blue depths.

Lance gulped, swallowing around the nervous lump suddenly stuck in his throat. He felt heat creep across his face and way, way down below, silently glad that right now he was wrapped in a thick blanket and lying on his stomach.

But there was something odd about Allura, aside from the very obvious fact that she was currently sitting on his bed and drawing soothing circles on his back.

Her eyebrows drew together, head cocked to the side in a questioning manner, studying his face intently and Lance really hated that this stupid headache made it almost impossible to think straight or even come up with something smooth and flirtatious. He’d never get a chance like this again!

But the princess beat him to the punch: “Brother, has your fever gone up?”

Her other hand slid under his bangs, but the unexpected contact was not even necessary anymore for Lance’s complete thought process to grind to a vicious halt.

Had she just called him her brother?

He knew he was staring but could not help it. He must have misheard.

Her palm slid down to his cheek and Lance could feel a mighty shudder run down his spine. It seemed to confirm something for Allura, as she withdrew, adjusting her gown. The smile she graced him with was sympathetic and loving and incredibly sad.

“I shall ask Coran to bring you some narvile.”

And as if this whole exchange could not turn anymore strange, she actually leaned down and planted quick kiss on the crown of his head.

Lance watched her retreating back, even after she had disappeared behind the door into a brightly lit corridor. There was something pleasant about being completely numb from the kiss of a beautiful woman but Lance was convinced that what he was feeling was most likely shock and that it went beyond the fact that Allura had been this close and gentle to him.

As he slowly came back to his senses, he blinked down at his hands, still fisted into his comforter. They appeared… darker?

-

<< _Lance, do you copy? >>_

Allura’s voice crackled through the comms loud, invasive and rushed. There was no image popping up, meaning that they had to be still in communication range but not close enough for the castle to pull up visuals.

Lance blinked. He felt himself slumping forward in his chair boneless and dazed and it took him a moment to gather about his wits.

His mouth tasted coppery, traitorous sign of his stomach revolting and readying itself to evacuate whatever food goo he’d managed to force down earlier. He hoped he could suppress it until he was back in the Castle and his quarters, away from his friends as possible witnesses.

He drew in a few lungful of air, mindful of the way his insides jolted with the shallow motion.

“Lance, reporting in for duty ‘Mam.”, he joked, although it took all of his willpower to mask the shaking in his voice and to even make it sound strong enough as though he were not about to barf.

Cheers and cries of his name could be heard from everyone, even a relieved sigh from the princess. It made Lance smirk but that was about all he could manage without triggering his already very sensitive oesophagus and stomach.

<< _Lance, are you alright?_ >>

Shiro’s concern was palpable and rather flattering; too bad it just put him in the horrible position of having to lie to his leader’s face. Or voice, since, well, there was still no image displayed.

“I’m great.” He put his shaking hands on Blue’s controls, willing himself to shake off the overall feeling of sickness, “But I’m sure I’d be feeling even greater if you guys could come and pick me up?”

Coran’s voice rang through his cockpit, tone delighted and cheerful.

<< _Sure thing. Just give us your coordinates and we will be there in a tick._ >>

He nodded, only remembering they couldn’t see when Coran repeated his instructions, now more alert.

“Yeah, right, sorry, um…”

He floundered, suddenly realizing he had next to no idea where he was, the stars and systems looking different from when they had been in the Deverian system, their most recent battlefield.

A hum like electricity filled the back of his mind, making his back tingle and sending as shiver down his spine. Though it did not really help his overall nausea, he couldn’t help the grin spreading on his face: “Blue! Man, am I glad to have you back!”

He was ecstatic, and judging by the feelings lapping at the back of his mind, so was his Lion, warmth spreading through him, making him realize just how cold he’d been. Yet, underneath was a sense of disjointedness and concern she’d never displayed before. It made Lance wonder just what had happened to warrant such worry.

A sharp voice broke their moment: _< < Lance? What’s going on? Is your Lion damaged?>>_

Lance gave a curse in Spanish he hoped Shiro did not know the meaning of. He had forgotten he was on speaker.

“Ah”, he scrambled for an explanation, not really knowing why he felt both dread and embarrassment at the prospect of having to admit he had suffered some sort of fever dream starring him and Allura on a bed, in a dark room. He was aware of how stupid this sounded in his own head but he was miserable and panicked and the fact that Blue was somehow amplifying his distress with her own sudden anguish was not helping.

“I just…”

The nausea was back and demanding his attention.

“I blacked out.”

There was nothing else to say; no genius answer coming to him when he was concentrating on not leaving a puddle of sick in Blue’s cockpit. The faint brush at his mind told him she appreciated the effort.

There was a grunt from the other end of the comm but it was filled with relief.

_< <I guess that’s natural. >>_

There was a pause and Lance was just grateful that they had swallowed his half-lie. His fists clenched and unclenched around the control sticks as he hunched over himself, taking deep breaths he hoped were not coming out too loud at the other end of the line of communication.

<< _We still need your coordinates. >> _Coran reminded gently and Lance rushed to follow the order.

“Coordinates. Right.” He tried to sound casual. “Blue, if you’d do us the honour!”

There was a rumble at the back of his mind and soon, a notification popped up, informing him that the data was being transmitted to wherever the team was.

He had not noticed himself losing focus until Pidge’s comment about him not being that far away rattled him out of his state of drowsiness.

“See ya soon then.”

He did not warn them about shutting off the comms. As soon as he was done, he tried to get out of his seat, pleading with Blue to give him directions to a nook or cranny where he could throw up his guts without completely sullying her. Throwing up on a lady just was a no go.

While sitting, he had not felt just how battered and winded he was. The sweat coating him was gross and chilling, making the bodysuit of his armour cling and stick to him in uncomfortable places. It was a feat in and of itself that he had managed to stand up – he felt weak and faint as he tried to follow Blue’s instructions to a corner of the cockpit, where a small storage unit was.

Lance tried to yank it open with one hand, the other clamping down on his mouth, already filling up with saliva, for good measure.

There was some sort of bag resting in the tiny compartment that hissed open at his touch and he wasted no time snatching it out and violently throwing up into it, not caring if it might not be leak-proof, simply relieved once the pressure right beneath his sternum was gone.

The smell was disgusting and his mouth tasted like pure acid and dead slugs but at least it was over. He slid down the wall, fumbling to somehow close the bag clutched in his hands so he could put that vile stuff away. Whatever kind of technology Alteans produced seemed smart enough to understand when someone wanted stuff sealed shut and Lance had never been more glad and curious in his life, as the open ends melded together, as if it had never been open in the first place.

He put the thing aside, somewhere on the floor next to him, resting his back against Blue. Trying to get his helmet off proved a challenge, his arms jelly-like and his head inclined at a stupid angle to pull of the piece of armour but he somehow made it work.

He wrinkled his nose as he took note of the disgusting mess clinging to the lower parts of the helmet and ran a gloved hand over his mouth for good measure, discarding the sullied clothing article right after.

He had never felt this drained or cold. It seriously made him wonder what had gone wrong with the wormhole and what it had maybe done to him. Blue obviously shared his concern, feelings and impressions bombarding his mind. It was difficult to keep up with it all.

She was afraid, that much was obvious. Confused.

“You’re not the only one.”

Curiosity alongside an emotion that was strong and bold. It took Lance a while to figure out what she was getting at.

“I have no idea what happened.”

He was being completely honest.

When the wormhole had collapsed, he had been ready to be ejected into some far off part of the universe; ready to go on a merry chase for his teammates or hope or them to catch his distress beacon. That whole dream had thrown him off, just as the realization that this time, he would be reunited with everyone else within the matter of an hour.

Yet, the dream had felt so real.

His eyes were already drooping as he lay there sprawled on the floor, just resting, his head too woozy to put any serious thought into the strange experience. He was eternally glad that Blue decided to back off at some point with her prodding and probing and allowed him to rest, her deep purrs putting his mind at ease.

He jolted when the comms suddenly activated and Hunk’s voice filled the cockpit.

_< < Hey, Lance, need me to give you a leg up? >> _

Lance was not sure whether to groan or reward his bud with a laugh – they were leg buddies after all. Getting up from his spot on the floor was pure agony. Okay, maybe he was going a little overboard with the description but all in all Lance could admit that heaving himself up and crossing the small space to the pilot chair had never been this strenuous. Seeing the Castle, undamaged and with his hangar bay door wide open in invitation, was a welcome sight.

“No worries. I can manage.”

He and Blue knew it was not sincere, Lance having begun to feel the cold seep in deeper. It made him sluggish and whatever the wormhole had done to zap him of his usual energy had done a damn fine job. Even his time recovering had not helped any.

Somehow and mostly through Blue’s generous help, they successfully returned to her hangar, Lance patting her console in thanks. He slumped a little in his chair as his girl shut down minor systems and functions one by one.

The concern was still there, at the back of the mind-space tying them to each other, urging him gently to seek out his companions for help.

“In a tick.” He chuckled, fumbling with the safety harness he had readjusted just in case.

His head leaned heavily into the cool surface of the headrest, eyes closing shut and body relaxing, limp fingers sliding down into his lap.

He did not wake to Blue bending forward to allow access to his friends, or the general mayhem that ensued when he failed to respond to their voices or their touch, nor to the jostling journey as he was carried off to med bay and placed into one of the cryo-pods, six faces studying his slack one anxiously from beyond the glass.

Lance just slept.

And he dreamt.


	2. HOROLOGIUM – THE PENDULUM CLOCK

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance is not as alright as he might make people want to believe he is - himself included.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd just like to add that I am currently pretty sick. That's the only reason why I was able to write this chapter so quickly.   
> As such, it might take a bit longer for the next one.

Lance was cold all over. It wasn’t a nice feeling. The hand carding through his hair was warm. He let that sensation wash over him.

People were murmuring.

“He’s been getting worse.”

Before Lance could reassure whomever the sad voice belonged to, he felt himself go under.

-

He trembled from head to foot. His skull felt like it had been cleaved in two. He was alone and he was scared. Why did it hurt so bad? Where was everyone?

Opening his eyes just made it worse, eliciting a pained whimper. Losing consciousness was a blessing.

-

When he awoke, he was slumped over a table. The angle was odd and uncomfortable but Lance revelled in the fact that for once he was not in tremendous pain.

There was light shining on his face and when he opened them to look around he saw that he was sprawled over writings and drawings, a desk lamp reflecting on the snow-white paper.

He nuzzled his face back into his arms, for once too relaxed to care about moving.

-

When he fell out of the pod, there was no one there to catch him. He stumbled and landed hard on the unyielding floor of the cryo chamber, giving a pained yelp as his knees _groaned_ in protest. He allowed himself to stay on the ground just a few more seconds with his eyes still closed and resting his cheek against the chill and smooth metal floor. It was kind of sad how often he found himself back in here. He’d have to draw the line somewhere; he couldn’t let Keith beat him when it came to being a brave and infallible space-warrior. Although, seeing as he’d already ended up in the pods more times than Keith and usually for longer durations it was a moot point. Maybe he could go for most stays in the pods? No, that was a bad idea even for his standards, although he kinda did have rights to claim that title.

There was a pressure at the base of his skull and he felt his lips twitch into a tiny smile.

“Mornin’ Blue.”

His quiet greeting was met with enthusiasm. Lance was sure that if his girl were a real flesh and blood lion, he’d either be covered in fur or licked sparkly clean judging from the emotions she was sending.

It was a tangle of happiness and elation and it felt immensely good after their literal and emotional rollercoaster through the wormhole.

There was a hiss, a gasp and a call for his name, making Lance glance up at the figure rushing to is side, kneeling down, face worried and ashamed.

“Hi Hunk,” Lance joked as his friend fretted, pulling him up by his shoulders.

“Are you alright?”

Lance was somewhat taken aback by the urgency in the mechanic’s voice. Hunk’s brown eyes were looking into his and Lance wondered just what had happened that had his friend so concerned.

Actually, he could not recall what had happened after he had entered the hangar.

“Uh, I’m fine. What about you? Where’s the parade?” He let Hunk manoeuvre him down to the steps leading to the cryo-pods, allowing Hunk to sit him down and throwing a fluffy blue blanket over his shoulders which had been neatly folded next to the contraption.

A plate of food goo and a spork were shoved into his hands as Hunk obviously still looked for something. It left Lance a little uneasy but he did not protest and instead started to put small bites of the greenish food into his mouth. When he asked Hunk for a drink, in hopes to rinse the lingering acridness from his earlier ordeal, he happily guzzled down the pack of space juice his buddy held out to him.

Hunk gave a relieved sigh, finally plopping down next to him.

“Sorry, man. I wanted to be here when you woke up but nature called.” He gave a sheepish smile, just this side of apologetic. Lance offered him a nudge in the shoulder, lips still wrapped around the alien cutlery, showing him he understood and appreciated the effort.

Sure, it would have been nicer to fall into a warm hug but they all knew that it was unfair to expect and impossible to always have someone waiting in the cryo-chamber. It was not from a lack of trying, having put in place a kind of system where one person had to be available for a certain period of time to look after whoever was in the cryo-pod or medbay, but life in the Castle could get hectic at the drop of a dime.

“How you feeling?”

Honestly? Physically there was nothing wrong. Lance was sure he would have been mottled with dark bruises without his stay in the pod and, wow, was he glad he did not have to go through the natural process. The stiffness would not have been something to look forward to.

But something he had instantly noticed that differed from his other stays in the cryo-pods was that he did not feel refreshed or rested. He shortly debated whether to mention it but, really? It wasn’t that much of a problem. He’d sleep it off the normal way, without making his best friend more anxious than he already was.

“I’m good, I’m just gonna catch some z’s later” he ignored how Hunk studied him with badly disguised suspicion, “Where is everyone anyway?”

Hunk twitched slightly at the unexpected turn, and oh could Lance see him internally fighting over answering or asking further questions. He raised his eyebrow, knowing full well that Hunk always would answer him quicker when confronted with his impatient expression.

“Well,” he pressed his lips together in thought, eyes trailing to the ceiling and Lance took the opportunity to lean back and prop himself up on his elbows, empty plate and spork precariously balanced on his thigh, “Coran went and checked on the Castle’s systems, since Allura kind of pushed them to their limits, and herself by the way. I swear, the last time Coran was this insistent with her going to bed must have been after the Balmera.”

Lance grinned, imagining what it must have looked like but still needing to ask about the princess’ welfare.

“Yeah, she’s alright. She just strained herself.” His expression fell. “She tried really hard to keep the wormhole stable.”

All because Lance had to go and play hero. Hunk must have seen something in his expression because Hunk’s hand was suddenly around his bicep and giving a soft squeeze.

“Hey, it’s alright.”

“Yeah,” Lance drew out, giving a sigh, “not one of my most glorious moments.”

Hunk’s conflicted expression shut him up. “You okay there?”

Hunk actually shrunk into himself, twiddling his thumbs. This was bad. This was Hunk’s anxiety reeling its head.

“You really scared us.” It was quiet but Lance understood the gravity of those words.

Hunk’s eyes were brighter than usual but he did his best at keeping the anguished tears at bay, blinking rapidly and rubbing a thumb beneath his eyes.

“Blue had to let us in because you weren’t answering and when we finally got into her cockpit you wouldn’t wake up, no matter what we did. It was really, really scary.”

Lance quickly put the plate aside, sat up and wrapped his arm around his friend’s shoulder, along with the blanket. He was glad Hunk was not shy to be touched; otherwise Lance would be a bit at a loss as to how to properly comfort him. Touch always grounded Hunk.

“I’m sorry but I’m alright,” Blue was faintly pushing at their connection, a touch reproachful and irritated but Lance ignored it for the time being, “What about the others?”

Hunk took several calming breaths and Lance was glad that his tactic was working, feeling Hunk’s shoulders loosen up.

“I think Keith’s still on the training deck trying to beat that level six he’s been stuck on for a while now.”

They both smiled. Count on Keith on trying to _punch_ frustration into the next week.

“Shiro’s-” he paused, eyes widening comically and blinking, “You know: I actually have no idea where he is right now.”

“Probably wandering around the Castle. Or beating up training bots with Keith.”

Hunk gave a hum.

“Which reminds me…” Hunk looked to the side thoughtfully, index finger raised and pointing into thin air. He carefully got up; shedding off the part of the blanket he’d shared with Lance. He made his way over to the back of Lance’s pod. When he followed, peeking over his friend’s shoulder, Lance had had to stifle his sniggers by pushing a fist in his mouth, anything less would not suffice.

Their programmer extraordinaire was slumped against the pod, sleeping soundly. It wasn’t a new occurrence: Pidge was prone to overworking themself until they literally dropped where they stood, teenage body forcefully claiming the hours of sleep Pidge so adamantly denied it with their projects.

One would be surprised where they could fit, the most exotic location Pidge once had been discovered at being under a workbench in one of the Castle’s workshops containing hardware. They had been curled around the Earth equivalent of an auxiliary storage the size of an encyclopaedia.

Right now though, they were leaning against the cryo-pod, laptop resting on their lap with cables running from it up to an access panel and Lance briefly wondered if their messing around with his pod might have had something to do with him waking up.

But that became unimportant when, really, Pidge just looked adorable with their mouth agape and glasses sitting crookedly on their nose as their face rested heavily against the cool metal.

Lance swore he heard soft snoring.

Hunk turned to him, putting a finger in front of his mouth to shush him, but his lips were quivering so dangerously with his own barely suppressed mirth that Lance had an even harder time getting it together.

He squatted down, trying hard to swallow his laughter whereas Hunk went and picked up their smaller teammate, cradling them in his arms. Pidge did not even stir.

“You good to go?” He whispered.

Lance nodded, still fighting valiantly. What he wouldn’t give for a camera. Changing positions had done nothing about Pidge’s widely gaping mouth and snores.

Hunk reminded him of Pidge’s equipment and the clutter they’d left next to the pod and Lance went to fetch it, finally joining Hunk at the door and accompanying him to the kitchen and finally their quarters.

Lance never discarded the blanket and Hunk remembered too late to question it.

-

Lance groaned when he opened his eyes, swiping a hand over his aching forehead. It did nothing to alleviate the pain but he always felt like he was doing something at least.

He was surprised to find himself on one of the decks serving as a balcony. They were strange, egg-shaped structure which, Coran had once explained, had retractable plating to allow the residents of the Castle to sit here and revel in the scenery if they wished to, a thick glass-barrier separating them from the outside world.

Lance had only found his way to one of those balconies once, while strolling through the Castle, but seeing as in space the glass always was covered by the protective metal-plating Lance had not bothered to venture back. And why sit on a balcony when you could just go outside and enjoy more than just the view?

Yeah, so, he had only set foot into one of them once but he still recognized the place.

He was taken aback by the expanse of blue that greeted him, right above him as though there was no barrier separating him from the rich colour. His chest ached with longing for Earth, because he couldn’t believe that he was back. If he gave himself that much hope, it would just hurt all the more when he realized his home and family were still billions of lightyears away.

He frowned, trying to remember how he had gotten here. He’d gone straight to bed once Hunk had bid him a good night. He honestly had no idea how he had ended up here.

Maybe he was dreaming?

He let his gaze wander down, his mouth falling open at the sight that greeted him: A massive field of strange flowers blooming on a field of green grass. It reached as far as the mountain range in the distance, the peaks covered in pristine white. He heaved himself up and out of a chair, noticing the grey blanket falling off him but going straight to the window, almost pressing his nose to the glass. He felt a lump in his throat. This couldn’t be Earth, he knew it, but the likeness did not help his deep, aching longing.

Movement down below caught his eye.

Three figures were sitting in the grass. The two people who sat with their backs turned to the castle seemed pretty young, maybe around Pidge’s age if Lance were to go by their size but what had Lance transfixed on them was the fiery orange hair, one in a buzz cut and the other a neatly trimmed bob. At least that was what he thought those haircuts were supposed to be. The kids wore sleeveless, blue shirts but there wasn’t much else he could distinguish except for the pale skin of their arms.

The third person reached into the midst of the circle they sat in, a small heap of flowers amassed there, and picked up a brightly coloured plant, twirling it around between their dark fingers. Lance rubbed at his eyes with both hands but it did change nothing about what he saw.

Allura was sitting there, kneeling with her dress gracefully fanned out, showing that the skirt had been designed to look like a flower with overlapping petals. She was laughing at something one of her friends must have said, her mouth wide and eyes closed as she rocked back. It occurred to Lance that he had never seen her this relaxed before. What got his attention was her hair though. He admitted he had spent an inordinate amount of time thinking about what different styles she could use on it. Lance blamed it on the fact that Marta loved to talk about her hair and looks, often dragging Lance into the discussion for skin care related tips and because his youngest sister Maria often needed someone to braid her hair. Lance only got the job as her personal hair-dresser because he had both the patience and the dexterity required for the task. But maybe he thought so much about it because Allura never did anything else but put it down or up in a bun, which honestly, was just a real shame.

There was none of that thick mane of hair. It was short, barely going to her shoulders, and the fringe had been brushed back, what had assumed to be a crown of sorts holding the strands in place.

It took Lance a moment to realize it wasn’t just the hair that was different – Allura looked younger, baby fat rounding her cheeks and making her whole face seem softer. If Lance were to go by human years, he’d say she looked sixteen.

He must have stared for too long because suddenly Allura’s eyes were on him, beaming up at him and waving. It made the others turn around, mimicking Allura’s gesture no less enthusiastically.

They really were kids. Altean kids. The triangular cheek marks, orange and brown respectively, were a dead giveaway. Lance waved back by pure instinct. He really must be dreaming he thought distantly because this could not be real. Allura was a young but grown woman. She and Coran were the last Alteans alive. Their home and the rest of their solar system had been destroyed by Zarkon. Their people had been wiped out then thousand years ago.

The little group focused on the flower crowns they were working on but Lance stared on in numb shock.

A door hissing open had him turning around like a frightened animal.

-

The alarms were blaring loudly again, Coran’s voice coming through the speaker.

_≪_ _Paladins, we are under attack! To your hangars!_ _≫_

Lance threw off the two blankets he had cocooned himself in and grabbed his amour, feeling unrested but wide awake.

He decided to ignore it for now and to forget about whatever he might have thought he had seen.

~

The next few days, Lance did not miss _any_ opportunity to remind Pidge that they had the most hilarious and maybe cutest sleeping face. Whenever he stood behind them and Hunk just so happened to be standing across them both, Lance would throw his head back, mouth opened ridiculously wide and eyes closed, even slouching a little for effect.

Although Hunk tried to remain unaffected, he really stood no chance, trying and failing to stifle his laughter. It took the others a while to understand what was going on and Lance earning a few stinging bruises from the Green Paladin’s bayard along the way but soon enough even Shiro needed to discreetly hide a tiny smirk behind his hand.

Lance was just glad that he was back with his team, that he had not ended up alone somewhere. He never dealt well with solitude and excessive silence - the kind of silence that allowed your thoughts to get too loud.

The first night out of the pod had been a little rough. After all, the equivalent of a small space patrol had come across their location, engaging them in combat.

They had not even needed to form Voltron. A fact for which not only Lance had been thankful, seeing that everyone had been kind of cranky and been dealing with headaches in a few cases.

Now they slid back into their routines, as comfortable and happy as they could be in their current situation, although Lance did catch himself looking at Allura more intensely than before– something Pidge took great advantage of to get revenge on him. Although he did jokingly wink at the princess and often earned unimpressed looks or even an eye-roll, Lance quickly schooled himself to tone it down.

Something was amiss.

Lance was the only one who knew about it, at least he hoped so because there was no way he was going to bother any of his friends and teammates with it, no matter how much Blue insist on it.

The dreams never stopped. Every night, once Lance had applied his face and sleep mask, had Pidge’s headphones tugged well over his ears and made himself comfortable in bed, he would hope not to have one of those strange visions. Every night he would be deeply disappointed.

Usually, he found himself in a spacious room with a round bed. Sometimes, he would be on that balcony, sitting in a chair with a blanket thrown over him. Other times, he would be slumped over a desk with the lights on or off. If he was lucky he would hear voices, some of which he’d recognize. The only thing that remained a constant was exhaustion and pain.

It was always there, in various forms and with different degrees of intensity but it never went away.

Maybe Lance could have handled the dreams and the ache if that were the extent of it. What he did not deal well with, was the constant exhaustion.

Sleeping did not bring Lance any meaningful rest. Rolling out of bed had been a bit of a bother before but now it was a chore to throw off the blankets he had started hoarding on his bed and get ready for the day.

Most days he still managed it in time and, yeah, maybe he was getting a bit more irritable than usual but it was still within bounds. And compared to Pidge or Keith (on the rare occasion his body wanted to rest longer), faces pressed into the surface of the table and muttering dark, ominous threats under their breaths, he was still a pleasure to be around.

It was their luck that a while back Hunk had found something like coffee on a space market and although it was green, creamy and far too mild for coffee it had about the same effect. Lance only knew what it tasted like because he had begun to ask Hunk to brew him the stuff as well.

“So you finally admit that even you can’t wake up every day all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed?” Keith had challenged, smirking as he gave Pidge a high-five. Both had complained about his disgustingly cheerful mood during breakfasts, especially when they were struggling to appear like humans instead of sleep-deprived zombies.

Lance, ever the adult, had decided to stick out his tongue at them. It only made the two snigger harder while Hunk was kind enough to give him his drink without further comment. Lance made sure to compliment him extra just for that alone.

It was just a phase. Soon enough he would be back to normal.

And it was not dangerous, he was sure.

~

Almost two weeks later, Lance wanted to punch himself in the face for ever believing that he could handle this on his own.

The problem had not resolved itself. Oh no, it had gotten _worse._

So much in fact that right now, Team Voltron was sitting on the training deck in a circle, mind-melding-devices strapped on and glaring at him something fierce.

Every.single.one.of.his.teammates.

And honestly? Lance could not blame them for it.

Coran had proposed they try and form Voltron during an exercise, simply because their recent battles had never been hard enough to require combining into a gigantic robot.

Their exercise had been ended prematurely, with the Blue Lion disconnecting almost instantly.

Lance had known he was not in the right frame of mind to be attempting forming Voltron and entering the mind-meld that came along with it. Over the past two weeks he had come to understand what exhaustion meant.

Because he definitely felt like he was drawing on his last reserves.

Despite knowing that his body slept, Lance felt like he had not rested for the past month or so. A low-key headache had become his constant companion, alongside an fatigue that could not be chased. The cold he had first felt when he had been ejected from the wormhole had not increased but it also had not gone away, driving him to remain in heated areas or throwing on whatever article of clothing he could get his hands on that would not be missed.

The dreams were getting more jumbled and confusing and painful.

It was still the same locations but Lance seldom could make heads or tails of anything.

Not that it was much different while awake. Training with him was becoming a real hazard, with him often tripping on thin air, dropping his bayard when it grew heavier in his grasp, stumbling into teammates and zoning out while critical information was being passed on.

Everyone, even Allura, had been trying to be patient with him but by the third session the princess had no longer deemed it necessary to hold back, giving him a piece of her mind rather harshly, reminding him of his duty and the responsibility he carried.

Lance had taken it, swallowed down his pride and bitten on his lower lip to make sure not a single sound escaped him. He hoped that the brimming tears had gone unnoticed. It was his fault, even he could not deny that and he did need to find a solution if he did not want to drag down the team further.

Her little ‘pep-talk’ had changed nothing about his performance, much to her displeasure and Lance’s own.

Lance wanted to do better but he truly and honestly could not to do more but try his best.

Keith and Shiro shared Allura’s sentiment, although their leader had taken him aside later to maybe soften the blow a little. Lance nodded at his offer to come to him if there was a problem, although Lance had no intention of taking it up. Keith just was fed up with attitude, obviously interpreting it as him goofing off and not taking their job seriously. Their arguments lost some of their playful spark, although Lance really did try to keep it within safe boundaries. It only failed due to his own crankiness.

His refusal to seek help had only managed to make Hunk act a bit more coolly but not by much. Lance guessed that he was simply hurt over the fact that Lance was hiding something from him. He would be there for Lance but it would have to be him to make the first move, not Hunk. As long as Hunk did not refuse to hug him while Lance had a blanket wrapped around himself, he was alright with that. He’d probably be mad at Hunk as well, if he ever did pull something similar.

Pidge and Coran had opted on making various comments as to what kind of diseases could have triggered Lance’s change, but Pidge’s were definitely more biting than Coran’s, the advisor simply and truly wondering what was wrong.

And while Blue may not be happy with the situation, she had taken on purring at the back of his mind, the sound deep and comforting and diminishing his headaches somewhat. She never gave up on persuading him to ask for help but it had become more of a gentle nudge, in the hopes that kindness would be more of an incentive than constant badgering.

But Lance did not want to open up about his problem. It was stupid but what were the others supposed to do about it anyway? What if it was permanent? Lance remembered it happening the first time during the wormhole, remembered that tugging and ripping at something inside of him. What if there was no cure or any sort of remedy to at least manage the ‘symptoms’?

He felt like he was better off not knowing.

“Lance.”

At the call of his name he snapped back to attention. He had not even noticed he was dozing off.

Shiro was giving him a dangerous look.

“Please concentrate, we’d all like to get over with this exercise quickly.”

Lance gave a subdued nod, avoiding his friends’ eyes. Coran was repeating the instructions he remembered from their first time attempting this and he had to pull himself together so as not to fall into some sort of stupor.

Everyone had their Lion already visualized in front of them, the only missing was him. Lance tried closing his eyes, hoping that it might help him concentrate. Blue’s presence became stronger but it was not enough. It was as if any and all thoughts were trickling through his fingers like sand.

He tried harder but there was so much, those voices and faces from his dreams, images of his own family, the wish to just be able to _sleep_ for once again.

The image of the Lion he conjured up was unstable and crackling constantly but it was there.

He could hear Coran cheering him on, excited and eager but the tone of his voice suddenly stirred something in Lance’s mind. He could practically see Coran pumping his arms animatedly and with his orange hair Lance almost thought he looked like…

The image of the Blue Lion disappeared instantly, only to be replaced by the faces of two Altean children.

“Goddammit, Lance!”

Keith’s outraged cry completely broke his concentration and the image was gone, along with any hope of finishing the exercise. Keith stood, glaring down at him in pure frustration.

Lance did the only thing he could think of by resting his elbows on his crossed legs and burying his face in his hands. He couldn’t take looking at any of them right now.

“I’m sorry.”

He really meant it and there was nothing he could really offer except his murmured apology. It meant nothing in the grand scheme of things but at least he’d tried.

He always tried.

≪ _Paladins…_ ≫

They snapped to attention, taken aback by the shaking in Coran’s voice.

“Coran? Is everything alright?”

They looked at Shiro who had pressed hand over his comm mic and seemed to be waiting for a reply.

There was a stretch of silence in which Lance shortly debated with himself on going and checking on the advisor but before he could get to his feet Coran was already answering, voice calm and collected as though nothing had happened: ≪ _Paladins, would you please go and retreat to the common area? I will be there shortly with the princess._ ≫

Various agreements or sounds were given in confirmation, the Paladins filing out one after another.

Lance gave a deep sigh, readying to heave himself up when he started at the hand resting on his shoulder. Hunk was looking down at him, a hundred questions in his eyes but he did not say anything. Instead, he helped Lance to his feet, alarmed when Lance’s footing was unsteady.

Lance felt his lower lip trembling. It suddenly was so much more difficult to keep his emotions at bay.

He was glad for his friend’s silent support as Hunk lead him out.


	3. CRATER - THE CUP

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the team reflects a lot on the past few weeks and Coran sees ghosts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was fighting me and as such it did not really turn out the way I had planned. I even had to split it, otherwise it would have turned into a monster. I am posting it right now completely unbetaed because I am not sure when I will be able to upload in the following weeks (Christmas is THE time for handcrafted gifts!). I will come back and fix errors but I did not want to keep you guys waiting.
> 
> Anyway I hope you enjoy this chapter! Happy Holidays to y'all!

Coran could not bring himself to look away from the image displayed on the console.

Every time a Paladin used the mind-meld-devices, information would be transmitted to the Castle’s systems: on their brain-activity, their vitals and even visuals or audios on the things coming up in a mind-meld.

Coran always monitored the process, looking out for any signs of distress or other things that might indicate that something was wrong with a Paladin’s bond. With the amount of data provided, it was a rather demanding task but he could do it.

All in all, he had hoped to find out what had been plaguing young Lance through the use of their technology. During the last few cycles, his performance had dropped dramatically along with his general mood and energy levels.

Though at first he had believed it to be a bout of homesickness, Coran had been certain that was not the case. He knew Lance to be mature enough not to let his feelings get in the way of their mission but that also made it harder to pinpoint the cause of the young Earthling’s distress.

He had been prepared for a lot of things but certainly not _this._

His throat constricted as he looked at the faces, big smiles and exaggerated gestures. Coran pressed a gloved hand to his mouth, suddenly choked with emotion. When was the last time he had seen them? The last time he had seen them smile like that?

His other hand gripped the edge of the console for support, the material groaning under the pressure.

It was such a shock; had caught him completely off-guard.

The question was now how in the six heavens Lance had procured this image? Taking a deep breath, he put a command into the computer that would make the Castle’s systems run a scan on all files available to see if this very picture was present in the databanks.

Maybe Lance had somehow gained access to data within the Castle and stumbled upon it by accident?

Ticks trickled by slowly as the bar showing the progress filled, a notification popping up that the file could not be found.

Coran frowned, wondering whether the Castle was possibly malfunctioning again.

He ran two other scans, differing the settings and parameters, before having to accept that this image really and truly did not exist in their data banks.

So, Lance had not been browsing through the Castle’s data.

That realization did not answer any of Coran’s many questions, nor make his task any easier or less puzzling.

With a swipe of his hand, he made all of the collected data on Lance hover in the air as holograms, allowing him to sift through it more effectively.

He spotted something, drawing up Hunk’s measure values on his brainwaves so as to have something to compare it to. He repeated the procedure with their quintessence levels.

His brow was deeply furrowed. The data did not add up, Lance’s scans looking barely anything like that of his friend’s.

He twirled his moustache in thought. The curves and numbers in the graph reminded him of something…

He turned when the door opened, shortly flooding the darkened room with light. Allura came up to him, not out of breath but her slightly mussed strands betraying how she must have hurried to come once he had called for her.

Her eyes were alert and serious.

“You said it was urgent?”

Coran nodded, taking a step aside to allow the princess to look at the image still displayed on the console.

He could see how her eyes widened both in surprise and horror. He wondered if he had worn that very same expression when he first saw it. Just like with him, her hands flew to her mouth, Allura’s eyes filling with tears. She righted herself, having leant forward to get a better look.

Her hands fell away from her mouth which hung open in shock.

“Oh, Coran…”, her whole face drew into a pained expression, more on his behalf than her own.

Coran took a moment to look away – it would do them no good for him to lose his composure now.

“Where did you find this?”

Allura’s voice was faint, her fingers running along the contours of the faces.

Clearing his throat, he wordlessly presented her his findings, pointing to Lance specifically. Allura, despite her initial surprise, went through the numbers and charts with the same dedication as him.

“These readings,” she began, eyes still fixed upon the data, “don’t you think they look a lot like…”

“Like what?” he asked when Allura failed to complete her train of thought. She looked straight at him, before typing a short combination of symbols.

Coran was surprised when her name was displayed brightly in Altean. Before he could ask her what she intended to do, Allura had overlapped her and Lance’s graphs.

They both stared, first at the glowing hologram than at each other.

“We need to talk with him.”

Coran nodded, transferring their findings onto a datapad, before shutting down the devices and leaving behind the dark room.

~

“I’m sorry, okay.”

Lance hated himself for the tears he felt running down his cheeks and dripping off the tip of his nose. Crying when you were actually upset and frustrated was a really stupid thing. He could not bring himself to look at them, opting to shield his eyes with his hands.

They were sitting on the couches in the common area with Pidge and Keith keeping their distance. Lance was pretty sure that as soon as he were within reach they would strangle him. Shiro had seated himself on the same couch as Lance but also kept an arm-length between them, whether out of politeness or for the same reasons as the others Lance couldn’t tell.

The only one close to him was Hunk who was keeping his arm off for now to give him a bit of space.

“I – I don’t get what’s going on.” He pressed out, having to sniffle. “I feel all over the place.”

“Yeah, no shit.”

“Pidge!”

Shiro’s harsh snap earned a sort of growl from the younger Paladin. They might have said some more but Hunk was quick to jump in, his voice deep and steady even when tempers were running high. The warm hand he placed on Lance’s shoulder made the Cuban glance up at his friend.

“Guys, knock it off.” His voice sounded almost pleading.

His hand snuck around Lance’s other shoulder and before he could utter any futile protests, Lance found himself in a one-armed hug he did not know he had needed _sooo_ badly.

Resting his head on Hunk’s shoulder, lip still quivering and sniffling, had never felt so good – even if he would have preferred the others not having to see him like this. But when your buddy Hunk ensnared you in a hug there was no way he would let you go before you were sated and comfortable.

The warm hand ran up and down his bicep and Lance melted against Hunk’s side. He started at the hand going to his face.

“Dude, what the -!”

“Keith” Hunk drew out their friend’s name and Lance was taken aback by the worry etched into Hunk’s face. Everyone else’s attention was immediately diverted to him, “could you run to our rooms real quick and get like, some blankets, like right now.”

Lance only heard a pair of feet darting over to the door and the sound being cut off by the door shutting again.

All the while Hunk had started to kind of pat Lance awkwardly up and down. Or at least, Lance had the decency to be embarrassed, Hunk too intent and focused with his brow creased into a frown. Lance did not dare looking over to his remaining teammates. He was sure his face would melt if he caught their expressions, whatever mix of gawking and/ or smirking they may be.

“Hunk, lay off, I’m fine.” Lance tried flailing his arms but was stopped when Hunk firmly grabbed his shoulders, turning him around to look him dead in the eye. Lance was always surprised at the hypnotic quality Hunk’s dark shade of brown and ochre could have.

“Lance” his tone was slow, deliberate and very serious, “you are freezing. I have no idea how your lips have not turned blue already.”

Lance blinked, opened his mouth and shut it.

While Hunk still held him in an iron-tight grip, someone moved to their right. Lance should be pleased with people wanting to touch his face but with Shiro he could not help but be a touch self-conscious.

If the downturned corners of his mouth and the tiny wrinkles around his scarred nose were any indication, Shiro seemed to share Hunk’s sentiment as his eyes roved over Lance, not less invasive than what Hunk had done moments prior with his hands.

“He really is cold.” He and Hunk nodded at each other, whereas Lance could only throw them helpless looks. “I’ll go get Allura and Coran.”

He straightened from his squatting position and left just as Keith had done.

Had they not spoken up, Lance and Hunk might have forgotten that there was still someone else with them.

“I’ll go get something hot to drink.”, Pidge said and, wow, for someone who had glared at him with _murder_ written across their forehead as they stampeded out of the training deck, Pidge now looked like they had trodden on a poor puppy’s tail.

Hunk agreed and as Pidge turned around, he gathered all of Lance’s long limbs and arranged them in such a fashion that he had his best bud encased with his warm embrace with no chance of escaping, ankles crossed and arm around Lance’s shoulders.

“Hunk.” Lance drew out the name, going for dangerous but it kind of failed when his voice cracked just a tiny bit, “Stop it, this is a bit much.”

The rumble he let out was deep and vibrated through Lance’s side, still pressed into Hunk.

“I’m not going anywhere unless you’re swaddled in a blanket.”

Lance gave a suffering sigh, which was more for show as they both knew, Lance’s body having decided to betray him and turning into goop as he felt his skin and muscles relax, warmth seeping back in.

It was not super comfortable, their armour unyielding and poking in awkward places but Lance couldn’t else but enjoy it.

He jerked, eyes snapping open when he noticed he was slowly drifting off. He was not ready to go back to sleep. He did not want to have to deal with those strange and nonsensical dreams again but Hunk’s hand came up to his head and firmly but gently guided it back to rest on his shoulder.

They remained quiet and Lance truly could not remember at what moment he had started dozing in his buddy’s embrace.

~  
Keith really did feel bad, even if he was obviously not showing it appropriately. He had been one of the first to notice something was up with Lance, maybe not in the same sense as Hunk who was Lance’s best friend and could pick up on the tiniest changes in the Cuban’s demeanour but Keith had noticed nonetheless.

Although Lance was one of the first to crack a groan-inducing and sometimes downright embarrassing joke, Keith had been aware of the effort he did put into Paladin training and keeping up the team’s morale. Sure, when it came to hand-to-hand combat Lance was easy game, usually disarmed far too quickly than could be considered safe. Shiro had already given him advice on it; Allura had positively chewed him out.

Despite this faults, Lance had shown great prowess when it came to long ranged combat and to the surprise of most of them, stealth.

Keith had found it kind of amusing, that a guy as gangly and loud as Lance could actually sneak up on them when he set his mind to it.

Pidge _hated_ it and Keith could admit unashamedly that he had laughed along with Hunk whenever Lance managed to make the smaller Paladin shriek when he came up from behind, ready to attack their sides to get them to laugh.

It usually ended with him on the floor, clutching at a bruise but the grin on his face spoke volumes.

And now that he thought about it, Keith realized that he had come to miss that.

It had only been about two weeks but within that short frame of time, Lance had undergone some radical changes that had not escaped any of them.

The first signs had been Lance taking longer in the mornings to join them. Of course, Lance had to be that one person to get ready for the day with some extensive skin-care routine, even while in space and taking part in what could only be qualified as a military operation.

He often ended up the last one to come through the door, although only by a few minutes, five at most as Shiro had once pointed out when Allura had complained about the Blue Paladin’s ‘great’ tardiness.

But slowly, those five minutes had started to morph into half an hour with Lance looking progressively less refreshed and glowing.

They had not commented on his looks, though Shiro did remind him to be more punctual and they tried to lighten the mood by joking about Lance’s new habit of blearily downing the space coffee Hunk would pass him.

The next thing that had taken them aback was the silence. If there was one thing that qualified Lance as who he was, it was his big mouth that could never not stay shut.

He had opinions on everything, even stuff he definitely did not understand, and was not shy to share them – be it as a passing remark, an observation or some kind of joke with his special brand of humour only he and Hunk seemed to get.

Nowadays, Lance was often too spaced out to even register a ‘golden opportunity’ for a joke. Seeing him, staring at nothing with his whole body slouched and his eyes drooping with the very obvious need to sleep, was becoming painful.

Watching him during training had been just as painful and as sympathetic as Keith was, training and their mission was the one thing he could not bring himself to take any less seriously even with one of his teammates in a funk. It wasn’t like Lance was not trying but if it had been up to Keith he would have had the Paladin removed until he was in any condition to go through the exercises. He couldn’t remember how often he had had to shield one of his other teammates from a stray bullet and how many times he had been thrown to the ground by Lance colliding with him. Shiro only had shaken his head at the proposal, believing firmly that Lance would soon open up about it and that training together would aid that process along. Keith had wanted to trust Shiro’s instincts.

And as the days went by and Lance simply refused to address the elephant in the room, the team’s collective ire had risen. Maybe Lance thought they were dumb enough not to see through his charade. Maybe he was doing it more for his own sake than theirs.

Whichever was the right answer, the fact remained that it had annoyed them. He had seen it in Shiro’s rigid posture, in Pidge’s increased nervous tapping of their foot and in Hunk’s taught smiles.

And Keith? He had had continued training with the level six drone, hitting it with more and more force. Joking with Lance was not possible, his desire to shake the idiot and demand answer far too great to ignore in favour of light-hearted exchanges.

And today it had culminated to the point where he had let out all the anger, and confusion and frustration in that single shout on the training deck.

He had immediately regretted it when he saw the defeat in those blue eyes, before they disappeared behind gloved hands from where a scarcely audible apology reached their ears.

He stilled, his hand fisted in the last blanket he wanted to take with him to the common room, nibbling at his lower lip nervously.

He felt bad for it, despite the anger that kept simmering because Lance still refused to share whatever was bothering him. At least he had admitted to there being something wrong. Keith considered that a small victory, although he would have preferred to gain it through different means.

As much as he did want to apologize, he did not feel like doing it. Lance had lead them on and refused their help even when it had been offered multiple times. He had dragged this whole thing on and made it more complicated than it would have had to be, for himself and the team as a whole.

Keith gave a weary sigh, deciding to shake it off and leave those things in the past. This was why he did not like dealing with emotions and second-guessing - it all just turned into a horrible mess.

He exited Hunk’s room and made his way back. They would get this sorted out.

The Red Lion growled in affirmation at the back of his mind.

~

Pidge took great pride in their ability to observe and catalogue efficiently, which in turn allowed them to draw conclusions that usually were on point.

It was one of the things that had allowed them to learn at a pace that had teachers and classmates alike look at them with both reverence and irritation. It was what had allowed them to piece together the missing bits and pieces about the Kerberos mission. It was what had made it possible to hack into the Galaxy Garrison and forge an identity as a student who was supposed to be male, from overseas and a few years older than Katie actually was.

Their intellect and deductive reasoning was their greatest pride and asset.

But as they came realize, setting down the cup they had filled with some sort of tea Coran often brewed them after a long training day, all that skill had not been enough to comprehend what had been going on with Lance. Nor was it helping them right now as they watched Hunk trying to coerce Lance into taking a nap.

“Lance” Pidge could tell that underneath the nagging there was incessant worry, “dude, you look like you could use some shut-eye.”

As with every other quiet plea before that one, Lance refused stubbornly, shaking his head and not looking at them.

It was puzzling.

Evidence said that Lance should have no qualms with the request.

All the signs piting to sleep deprivation were there: excessive yawning (even if Lance did not seem to notice it anymore by this point), the clumsiness and increased forgetfulness, the headaches Pidge knew were there because Lance’s hands would often massage his temples with a scrunched up expression, the sluggishness and, as it now seemed, low body temperature.

By all rights, it was a miracle that Lance somehow managed to still be aware while his body very clearly was preparing for shut down.

They all looked up when Keith came back, with a ridiculous amount of blankets cradled in his arms, a heap of white and pale-blue. His expression as he caught sight of his teammates, with Lance pretty much entrapped in Hunk’s embrace was rather amusing but he recovered remarkably quickly.

Though the sight was nothing that unusual, Pidge knew they both were not that big on physical contact and did not really get it.

Pidge only caught that there was a whispered exchange between their friends but not what it was about. Whatever Hunk was trying to do did not seem to work because Lance somehow just managed to bury himself deeper in Hunk’s embrace even though it was clear that Hunk had other ideas in mind.

Pidge was already laughing privately as they saw the look in Keith’s eyes. He took a few quick strides, until he was perfectly positioned above Lance and Hunk where they sat in the pit, holding his arms out.

He suddenly let go of his blanket pile, burying both Hunk and Lance under it.

The shouts and squawks were positively hilarious as the two Paladins squirmed under the material in their desperate search for freedom, Hunk’s head popping out first, closely followed by Lance, both glaring at Keith whose smirk was pretty devilish.

Pidge concluded they were definitely a bad influence. They relished in that fact.

“I brought you blankets.”

Pidge cackled loudly. It didn’t matter that Hunk’s and Lance’s eyes were piercing them.

At least, Lance had no longer any excuse to latch onto his best friend who took the opportunity and wrapped Lance up until he couldn’t move his arms anymore.

“Hunk.” The threat was lost amongst their united laughter. It was silly and not necessarily helping them solve the problem at hand but damn, even Pidge could admit that they had missed the easy atmosphere; the simple joy of laughing with and sometimes at their teammates expense after a long day. With Lance being too out of it and their sour mood, it had gotten a bit lonely in the Castle despite being surrounded by people.

The smile on Lance’s tired face made it obvious that Pidge was not the only one feeling that way. While Keith slid down next to them, Hunk had vacated his seat going on about making something to drink for everyone else as well only stopping short to ask them directly what they wanted before disappearing through the entrance to the kitchen.

During that short moment, Lance had somehow wedged his fingers between his chin and the cloth tightly wrapped just beneath it, slowly peeling the layer off like an insect might do with a cocoon.

The missing three members of Team Voltron chose that moment to come through the door, expressions anxious only to halt when they caught sight of what Pidge had dubbed ‘Lance the caterpillar’ still trying to get out of his entrapment.

“Uh” he began, sheepish smile creeping on his face and an embarrassed blush turning the tips of his ears bright red, “hi.”

His stammer obviously put them at ease, as suddenly the Alteans and Shiro deflated with a variation of discreet to heaving sighs, Coran directly approaching Lance and kneeling to his eye-level to check on him. Lance did not look any more thrilled than when Hunk had done it earlier but he obliged.

Pidge did not know why yet, but Coran tended to have that effect on their teammate.

“Looks like you guys were doing just fine.”

Keith gave Shiro a curt nod while Pidge answered with a single “Yeah”.

When Hunk returned with the drinks, three more mugs already prepared for the rest, almost everyone got settled and Pidge thanked Hunk as they took their first sip of space coffee. They really had needed it.

Coran finally withdrew from Lance, apparently finding nothing that might suggest the Blue Paladin was in acute danger, although he did shove the now lukewarm cup into Lance’s hands waiting until he had taken a sip before joining the princess on the couch. The pad Allura had taken from Coran earlier now lay on the table in their midst.

A light tap to its blank surface made it light up, revealing an image with two children. Pidge was surprised to recognize it but it made sense – it was the last thing that had popped up during their mind-meld before Keith had lost his cool.

What did not make sense though was that the children looked nothing like Lance’s siblings which were often at the forefront of his mind during these exercises.

These children were not his little sister and brother.

They were not even human.

One glance was enough for Pidge to conclude they had to be Altean with pointy ears, face markings and all. What did surprise Pidge was the hair colour.

They may not have met any other Alteans than the ones currently in command of the Castleship but that very shade of orange was suspiciously similar to the man’s currently sitting in front of them.

Looking around, Pidge was met with teammates that seemed equal parts curious as perplexed. Pidge could relate. As interesting as the image was, it was strange for Coran and Allura to be showing it to them.

Lance’s incessant rustling with his sheets had Pidge looking at him. His hand was rubbing at his neck with what could only be a lot of pressure. His other one was preoccupied with the cup, his index tapping against its rim rapidly.

He looked utterly uncomfortable.

Coran was having none of it though, his eyes resting calmly on Lance’s agitated frame.

“Do you recognize the people in this picture?”

Lance’s reply was hesitant.

“Not really. But I mean I did see them.” He added hastily when both Coran and Allura were giving him unimpressed looks. They were kind enough to return to their neutral expressions once Lance had corrected himself.

“Lance, did you find this image by going through the Castle’s data?”

Now, Pidge was intrigued. Most of them knew that Lance had never bothered much with the tech on board unless it had some kind of recreational value. They remembered how Lance had once asked if there was any way to upload some of his music into the Castle’s systems so that he could at least blare one song or another either in his quarters or whichever other place he was stuck cleaning. He had immediately given up on the idea once Pidge had told him the price for her little service, contenting himself with using their headphones and charging his mobile on their computer.

The only one who had seriously tried to get into the Castleship’s databank was Pidge themselves and they had yet to fully override all the protections surrounding the more sensitive data. Not that Coran had to know about their little side project though.

Still, it showed that this question was more of a test than truly an inquiry about the picture’s provenance.

Fighting down the sigh as Pidge could practically trace the thought process of Lance weighing his options when there was really none at all was hard.

His quiet admittance that, no, he had not found it in the databanks almost made Pidge groan in relief.

Coran acknowledged Lance’s honesty with a nod, his eyes a touch kinder now.

“Good, because this image does not exist in our database, I checked.”

Pidge could feel the tension in the room, making goose-bumps erupt on their arms under the black fabric of armour. It felt like the team was collectively holding their breath along with Lance, whose face had gone a little pale.

Coran’s eyes fell onto the picture and the twinkle in his eyes, as well as the wistful twist to the corner of his mouth did not go unnoticed, nor did Allura’s hand that sneaked over the cushions to give Coran’s a gentle squeeze.

He looked at them, but his eyes were not seeing them.

“The two children you see here were, in fact, part of the family of royal advisors. They remained on Altea when the war broke out.”


	4. CETUS

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In where questions get answered and more just keep popping up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is all about science stuff. But that science stuff is really important for the progress of the story.   
> Figuring these first steps out was super fun.

Lance did not know what to say. Objectively, he knew that this was the moment to tell the truth.

But the words that fell from his mouth were: “I’m so sorry.”

It wasn’t much of a stretch to guess that these kids had been related to Coran. Logically, Lance could only assume they even had to be his children. His heart ached. Being the middle child of a big family, with two younger siblings, Lance had an understanding of the worry and anxiousness coming with having to care for the little ones. Back when Maria and Danilo had been toddlers with too much energy and a thirst for adventure that even exceeded Lance’s, watching them on his own had been the most taxing but also most gratifying task. But Lance remembered well how many times his heart had beat frantically when the little ones suddenly disappeared on a busy street or how his stomach dissolved when he lost sight of them somewhere among the waves at the shore.

The idea of one or both of them getting hurt was enough to make Lance insides clench painfully.

And that was why he understood. Understood that Coran would never see them again because even if they had somehow survived the genocide of the Alteans, there was no way they were still alive after ten thousand years.

Coran probably saw something on his expression because even with the way his eyes shone treacherously, he seemed grateful as their gazes met. It did not deter him from his quest to seek answer though.

“Lance, where did you see them?”

He could feel everyone staring at him. In their situation he would be too but that did not make it any less uncomfortable.

Blue was nudging at the back of his mind, the coil of impatience, nervousness and affection making it harder to concentrate and refuse her.

“I-“, his voice broke a little under the pressure he put himself under. By this point, he was sure that it was self-made. Coran and Allura had to be aware that only extraordinary circumstances could explain where the image came from. That only left four other people thinking he was completely nuts. Booyah.

He took a deep, deep breath: “I’ve seen them in a dream after I was back in the Castle.”

God, that had been painfully awkward to say and it was painfully awkward to look at everyone. Well, at least Blue was pleased.

Pidge’s eyebrow somehow disappeared behind their hairline.

“Is this some kind of joke?”

Okay, now he was annoyed. Annoyed, tired and utterly and completely done with whatever the fudge had been going on with him for the past few weeks.

“Of course not!” Jumping to his feet was a bad idea and he instantly found himself back down on the couch, slightly dizzy. He ignored the concerned exclamations in favour of glaring, his headache acting up with how much he scrunched up his face.

“I’m being serious right now! Why else do you think I can’t sleep!”

“Wait, what?”

Hunk’s hand landed on his shoulder but this time not with the intent to comfort but to turn his friend around so he could look him in the face, making it impossible to keep any sort of secret from him. To Hunk, Lance was like a book when they locked eyes.

“What do you mean you can’t sleep? Cuz’ I swear I saw you passed out on your bed this morning.”

Lance shook his head and brushed his friend’s hand off as nicely as he could. Today had been the first time someone had had to drag him out of his room by the ankles and that honour had fallen to Hunk.

“No, what I mean is that I lie down, have strange dreams and am awake instantly as if I had never even managed to get some shut eye. And it- it’s tiring, okay?”

He gulped, directing his attention to Allura and Coran. There was so much he wanted to ask but it did not look like he had said enough just yet for them to be able to work with that information, so he went on.

“Rarely any of those dreams make sense or a really long, it’s always just bits and pieces but that one was totally sharp and clear and did last longer.”

Why was it so difficult to talk about this?

“I – That time I, sort of, woke up?” he inhaled, “I was on one of those balconies you told me about.”

Coran nodded, chin now resting on his intertwined hands.

“The panelling wasn’t there and I could see a sky and a field full of those Juniper flowers?”

“Junaberries.” Allura corrected, eyes wide in a sort of bewildered astonishment.

Lance nodded frantically, ignoring the stabs of pain in his skull and neck.

“Yeah, those exactly with mountains somewhere in the distance,” he made a frantic gesture with his hand, getting worked up for reasons he could not name, “and when I looked down I saw those kids and Allura sitting together and talking and laughing and well…”

He had run out of momentum, suddenly slumping and feeling drained. He rubbed his aching forehead with the heels of his hands, closing his eyes for a moment.

“That’s really all I can tell you…”

It was very quiet and Lance was not sure if he liked it.

He was startled by a short huff to his left, being jostled by the warm body falling back against the cushion of the couch. Hunk was wiping a hand down his face.

“And here I thought you were just homesick.”

Lance could not deny that Hunk knew him well, but it still hurt that he had so little faith in his ability to pull himself together and get the job done. He quickly downed the cold tea and deposited the now empty cup on the table without looking at anyone. The mice, which at some point must have found their way into the common area, were scuttling around, the biggest one taking up Lance’s invitation and settling itself on his flat palm. Lance let his fingers play with the soft fur as he slumped back.

“Lance.”

He looked up at his name and was surprised by Shiro’s dismayed expression, shoulders slumping and brow creased. He looked unhappy… and betrayed.

“Why did you think you couldn’t tell us about this?”

Lance did not know how such a simple sentence could make him feel like all the joy had been sucked out of the room. The mouse nuzzled his fingers more insistently which had suddenly stopped ruffling its fur but it was hard concentrating on that and finding the right words to excuse his behaviour to four pairs of eyes looking at him; and although Allura and Coran were concentrating on that strange pad again, Lance caught the way their eyes would glance at them every so often.

He stammered, having to close his mouth again because everything he could come up with sounded childish and dishonest, especially now that he had finally opened up.

“I didn’t understand it.”

He still didn’t and it was leaving him more anxious than he liked. Shiro’s posture was calm and relaxed, giving Lance time and not urging him, despite him probably being just as run-down from the past few weeks than everybody else. It made Lance realize why exactly he was the head of Voltron again.

“It was always so strange. I really had hoped it would pass. I was scared that you might think I had lost it or that I was no longer fit to pilot Blue. And I’m sorry I did!”, he almost shouted when practically everyone bristled, either out of shock or indignation, ready to give him a piece of their mind, “I know it was dumb! I know it… but what if it can’t be cured? What if this something I’ll have to live with for the rest of my life? I thought I might be better off not knowing and just powering through it.”

 “I was wrong, I get that now.”

He had turned his attention back to the yellow mouse, desperate for a distraction. The hug that made the mouse scamper away, came wholly unexpected.

“You’re a big idiot, you know that?”

“Yeah.” he agreed quietly with Hunk as he returned the gesture.

“I thought we’d discussed this whole pretending crap.”

“You know I tend to forget stuff.”

The noogie he got in response was completely deserved and everything he could have hoped for. 

But Hunk wasn’t the only one who had things to get off his chest.

“Sorry for making you feel that way then.”

Lance blinked, studying Keith with the intent of finding anything that could hint at dishonesty. His stare was met head-on, dark orbs challenging him, actually proving that his teammate meant it. Lance could admit that he was slightly taken aback – he and Keith were notorious for having trouble admitting they were wrong.

Maybe he really was giving the guy too little credit.

“But Hunk’s right: you are an idiot.”

Ok, forget it.

“Whatever.”, he grumbled, regretting that he had already downed his tea and put the cup away. He could have made great use of the dramatic effect of glaring at his rival over the rim.

His expression smoothed out when he addressed Shiro: “I’m sorry. It’s none of your fault, so pleaassee, stop looking like I ate your last goo ration.”

Maybe that kind of comment in their current situation was a bit inappropriate but it got the job done of making Shiro’s lip twitch.

“You may not have said anything but I feel like I should have caught onto something.”

Lance only shook his head.

“Not your fault.”, he repeated, putting emphasis on each word, looking at them all. By the end he was grinning at his own silly tone. Things were going better than expected.

Allura clearing her throat quietly had his attention immediately redirected at her.

“I am sure you remember that we had this problem already discussed. Paladins need to trust each other fully.”

It was difficult to see beyond the pensive expression she wore, to understand what was going through her head as she looked at them with that glint of determination they all knew best from her.

“I had hoped that Coran and I had made it very clear that the success of our mission solely depends on your ability to confide in each other.”

She took a deep breath, turning to Lance directly. It became evident that no amount of joking would get him out of whatever was to come now, so he steeled himself.

“Lying about your condition is not just an inconvenience – it could have put you in great danger, as well as your teammates.”

The amount of worry from her words and the look in her eyes floored him. If someone had asked him, he never would have thought that Allura of all people could express this much sympathy when his person was concerned.

It was touching he admitted.

“That is why you must be willing to share everything you can tell us.”

The firmness in her voice drove him to nod. It was slightly reminiscent of his aunt, just before they had filled out the application form for Galaxy Garrison together, no room for error allowed as she’d told him back then.

Right now also wasn’t the time for error but he felt like taking the risk of asking her was necessary.

“Okay, alright, but that still doesn’t explain what’s going on. Because, I swear I have no idea what’s happening.”

She acquiesced by nodding and giving Coran a meaningful look. It was as if they had rehearsed this little act, which did not make the holograms popping up before them any less impressing. Although objectively they all should have become used to this already, Lance still found himself awed by Altea’s technology.

Yet, Lance had never taken a look at the data the Castle collected on them, mostly because it did not interest him. He also had the sneaking suspicion that he would not understand anything of the things written in Altean. Just like right now.

“And what exactly are we supposed to see here?”

“These were your readings from the last session we conducted prior to your unfortunate trip through the wormhole. As you may see, humans’ brainwaves tend to remain in a range that we consider to be commonly shared by many species in the galaxy.”

The wavelength was a sinusoidal curve. There was nothing very remarkable about it really, safe for the fact that the perfect semicircles the waves formed gave it a rather harmonious look.

A tap and suddenly almost nothing from the former graph remained. Instead, the peaks had shifted while the frequency had remained exactly the same.

“These are the readings from today and as you may realize they have little in common with a human’s usual brain activity. It is also the latest screening we have on you after the incident with the wormhole.”

Pidge gave a low whistle: “If anything, I would say we have one of the reasons for your recent headaches.”

“So what does this mean exactly?” The more Lance was being shown, the less he understood. It was frustrating.

A second window appeared with a twist of Coran’s hand. The frantic up and down of the curves, compressed to the point it almost looked like a tightly wound coil spring, looked intimidating next to its balanced counterpart.

“These are the readings of a Blessed Altean.”

“Wait a minute,” Hunk began and he sounded next to scandalized, although Lance had not yet caught onto what he had obviously noticed on first glance “why are the critical values identical?”

Now that Hunk had said it, Lance could see what he meant. Despite his curves being nothing like the mess of ups and downs, it was impossible to deny that the values at the turning points were almost exactly the same.

“Well, it would seem I have found the perfect candidate for the task!”

Coran seemed immensely pleased with some private observation, eager even, until Allura turned to him, face serious.

“No, he can’t. He _has_ to take part in the exercise as well.”

Whatever the hell that exchange meant it had made Coran deflate the slightest bit and Lance was this close to yell at her to take it back. Okay, not so close really.

Allura would have his head if he ever tried. And Coran too.

“But how come the pods did not pick up on any of this?” Shiro’s expression was the very definition of worried. Malfunctioning medical equipment kind of warranted that kind of reaction.

Pidge’s hand shyly going up had everyone staring at them.

“That might’ve been my fault.” They admitted and Lance was as astonished as he admired them for having the gall to confess this in front of everyone “I was trying to see if I could optimize the functioning and have a more accurate ticker running.”

They glanced at Lance, obviously uncomfortable and guilty. Unable to have them this miserable, Lance just grabbed their head, spread his fingers and furiously rubbed until Pidge dislodged themself with a yelp.

Their glasses bobbed as their nose scrunched up in a petulant glare Lance simply returned with a smirk.

“No harm done.”

Part of the tightness in his chest vanished when a nervous smile made the corners of their lips twitch, though it did not stop Coran from pointing out that they would have to run diagnostics on the pods  later date to ensure they still would function unimpaired, his raised eyebrow leaving no room for argument.

As Shiro finished adding that tinkering with equipment should be reserved for times when it was _out_ of use, he asked Coran to explain the importance of the graphs still hovering in front of them.

“Sure. What we are trying to show you, is that by going through the wormhole and by getting caught up in this collapsing bend between time and space - constructed through pure, uncondensed energy - Lance’s brain might have been altered.”

No one, except the Alteans looked remotely convinced but Coran continued even when confronted with people giving him questioning looks.

“You must understand that in the past, Alteans did dabble into theories of time travel. It was inevitable, seeing as we conducted extensive research on wormholes and, what did you call it, black holes?”

Hunk nodded. Lance was pretty sure that they must have discussed different theories about deep space phenomena at some point, if his reaction was anything to go by.

Coran expressed his thanks. He looked contrite as he went on: “Experiments did not yield any favourable results and were banned for good measure. The Altean brain is capable of intercepting an immense amount of data but when it came to converting it into information, filtering said information and storing it…”

He gave a humourless chuckle.

“Evolution has graced us with incredible perception and memories but in turn made it impossible for us to effectively block incoming signals. When confronted with a massive influx of data, our species is prone to succumb to it leading to brain damage or death.”

Up until now, Lance would never have believed Alteans to have some sort of weakness - with how unbelievingly knowledgeable Coran could be and with the strength Allura had repeatedly proven capable of as she demonstrated her combat abilities during training for them to pick up - before he knew it, he had kind of crafted this image of beings far too well adapted to really have any weak points.

He knew it was silly but that was why Coran’s quiet explanation had him sitting here with rapt attention. He wondered with a pang of worry, if maybe their enemies knew of this loophole in their friends’ biology and hoped to whatever entity there might be listening to his thoughts, that it wasn’t the case.

The team must have reached the same conclusion, or at least were as surprised as him to be entrusted information that could potentially be sensitive.

Pidge’s face had a chalkiness about it that was worrying but Lance concluded that with how much knowledge they had stored in their brain, they understood most of the more unsavoury implications of what Coran had told them about the failures. Lance was not envious of them.

Any moment, he expected to hear whirring sound to come from Hunk and Keith, their expressions screwed up in concentration, the metaphorical cogs in their brains turning at full speed.

Shiro was alert but unreadable, Lance wondering what was going in his head. It mirrored the princess’ expression.

After having let that first information sink in, Coran looked at Lance directly. Everything about him demanded Lance’s complete attention.

“We know too little about your species to give definite conclusions about the nature of the alterations resulting from your journey through the wormhole. It could be humans had the same receptors as our species and evolution made them superfluous, your stunt somehow unlocking your true potential as a humanoid. Or your brain structure itself allows you to process data in a way that is in incomparable to an Altean’s.”

Lance’s head was spinning. The tiredness and mounting headache were not helping.

“And now in English please.”

He was met with exasperated stares from the rest of his team, probably because his interruption might throw Coran out of a loop Lance had been catapulted from a while ago.

 “What?”, he demanded, a touch irritable and defensive “I can’t be the only one who did have trouble absorbing all this.”

They remained silent but once Lance caught sight of Keith biting on his lower lip, he wordlessly pointed an accusatory finger at him, eyes narrowed. Keith glared back. Ever since Pidge had first pointed out this habit, they and the rest of the team always used it to their advantage whenever the Asian pretended to be on top of things. Only Shiro refrained and Lance guessed it had to do with how long they already knew each other.

Anyway, Lance felt no small amount of satisfaction at becoming better at reading Keith.

“Put simply,” Coran said kindly “it means that you, or your mind at the very least, might be able to travel back in time.”

There was a very heavy silence pressing down on them. Lance felt as if he had landed in one of those awful clichéd sci-fi series Gregorio loved to watch and that , if he waited long enough, he would wake up to the crackle of their antique TV being turned off by mamá, demanding they help clean the mess they’d made.

“You know, I never would have guessed I’d get to see a time-machine, even less a talking-walking one.”

Truthfully, it should have been funny but no one could really bring themselves to laugh at Pidge’s attempted sarcasm, especially since they sounded too surprised to work with their usually dry humour.

Lance guessed that, with their quick thinking, they were probably more worried than they liked to let on, if they were channelling his humour already.

“It does sound rather far-fetched.”, Shiro threw in cautiously but it was obvious that he did not dismiss the theory presented to him.

“If it were anyone else telling me this” Hunk added “I’d think you’re insane.”

Coran’s amusement was palpable but the mock bow was delivered in good humour.

Allura, having been silent up until now, was quick to pick up the conversation where it had left off.

“We are aware that to your species, these things might appear beyond possible, absurd even. I assure you they are not.”

An aura of seriousness had her enveloped, portraying the authority of a true queen.

“Our concepts of time travel always stayed within the realms of the non-physical. Physical displacement of objects or organisms of any kind in the time-stream would have demanded amounts of energy far too great to ever be considered.”

“That is why our scientists turned to the mind. But as Coran already stated, Altea banned experimentation based on ethic discourse and discord.”

The glow of the charts disappeared since the pad had not been used actively for a while now, the orange tinge disappearing from Allura’s complexion but she seemed to glow from the inside, a quiet fire Lance could not really tell what had ignited it. It took him a moment to realize it was excitement. The kind of quiet excitement Pidge displayed whenever their work on a code was finally bearing fruits.

“You having seen two people you could never possibly come across in this universe, the readings provided by the Castle and our theoretical knowledge about the possibility of moving outside the timeline… can lead us to the conclusion that you have, through pure chance and luck, overcome the boundaries of your and our species and opened a bridge allowing your mind to access the past.”

Everything felt distant and numb. Hunk’s worried voice asking him whether he was going to be sick was a good indicator that his blood had indeed rushed to the soles of his feet but everything felt like he was behind a thick wall of glass.

If what he had listened to was even remotely true, then there really was something wrong with him, that a shift had occurred he had been aware of but couldn’t explain. That something inside his body and maybe mind had been changed in such a manner it couldn’t be fixed. Lance was pretty sure that the brain was something that should not be messed around with.

He came back to himself when warm hands shook him gently and voices called his name worriedly.

The whole team was standing around him, everyone staring at him in alarm, their hands reaching out and grabbing him like a drowning man, even Keith which he found rather ironic. It was obvious he had gone into shock and it was jarring how long it took from him registering it to actually regaining his bearings.

“So-sorry” he gulped, fighting down the sudden queasiness “I’m alright, just…”

Everyone was sympathetic enough to drop the subject, although Hunk’s hand remained, steadying Lance and keeping him from slipping into another panicked state. He shared a thankful look with his best friend.

Honestly, he was a little ashamed. He usually wasn’t one to worry others like this.

He jerked his head when Allura called for him again. There was no hesitance or hitch but her tone betrayed her concern.

“We know this must be a lot to take in. We also understand that you must be frightened but you don’t have to be.”

He wanted to believe in her words with everything he had.

“Please allow us to help you, allow us to understand what is going on so that we can find a solution to this problem.”

All of his friends were encouraging him with their eyes alone. It was as if all the troubles and incertitude of the past weeks had become inconsequential. As though indeed, all that was important was getting him fixed.

Lance closed his eyes to keep the sudden tears that sprung to his eyes at bay, pressing out a quiet “ok” as the Alteans and humans readied themselves for what undoubtedly was to morph into a long afternoon.

~

Explaining in detail what had happened in the wormhole was more challenging than Lance could have anticipated. Blue was trying to help with images and impressions but it did not make the task of putting those into words any less demanding. Especially when Allura and Coran would drop a question every few seconds:

_“Did the wormhole break down before or after you had entered it?”_

_“Was there a moment of stasis?”_

_“Was your Lion’s functionality impaired in any way?”_

_“How long did it take for you to lose consciousness?”_

Lance kind of felt overwhelmed with the barrage of questions but both Alteans were kind enough to give him time answering and thank god his team tried to help him by providing words, even if it was more of a hit and miss most of the time. But Lance appreciated it, a lot more than he could probably voice at the moment.

This was a thousand times a better team-building exercise than the mind-meld they had attempted earlier. At least to him it was.

He felt as drained as the second cup of space coffee he downed during the little interrogation, but in a good way. It was nice not having to pretend nothing was wrong. Hunk had been a total sweetheart and brought them another round of drinks.

Lance was gulping down the stuff eagerly when Allura asked calmly, fingers typing information into her pad lightning quick: “Was this the first time that you experienced one of your dreams?”

Lance almost spit out the generous amount of coffee he had managed to drink. But because it was out of the question to spit on the princess, he instead forcefully swallowed it down, his throat protesting painfully and airways letting him know that this had been a dumb idea.

Hunk patted him on the back, a worried, “Woah, you okay?” accompanying it.

Lance had almost managed to forget about his very first dream, the one where he had been alone in a bedroom with Allura and where she had been kind and gentle to him, even bestowing him a kiss on his head. Now though, it came rushing back, leaving Lance flustered. 

He was squirming in his seat, hoping to high heavens that the blanket concealed his sudden agitation but there was nothing he could do about the flush creeping up his neck all the way to the tip of his ears.

Everyone was staring at him, surely taken aback by his reaction. Oh god, what was he supposed to _saaaaay_?

“I think you just broke Lance.”

Oh, how much he wanted to flip off Keith right now. The black-haired teen was sitting there and grinning, thoroughly amused by his obvious embarrassment. The smirk on Pidge’s face only widened when Lance tried to glare at them sulkily.

The older members of the team seemed a bit taken aback, surely not comprehending what could warrant such a reaction.

Hunk nudged him lightly in the shoulder.

“You wanna say something buddy?”

But Lance couldn’t. Not out loud. His hands flew quickly to his face, making himself as small as possible and muttering into the palms of his hands.

“What was that?”

Lance repeated quietly, only for Hunk to hear.

His best friend fell back in his seat, guffawing and struggling for air as Lance wildly slapped at his arm in a pure expression of helpless panic.

“Hunk!” His whine only made his friend laugh harder.

Everyone was gawking at them, even the adults.

“Okay, what is going on here?”

Hunk did his best at finding his voice again. Tears were stinging his eyes as he grinned at Shiro.

“He- he…” another bout of laughter interrupted him and Lance could do nothing but watch horrified as his friend spilled, “He’s this flustered cuz’ he got a good-night kiss from the princess!”

He fell sideways onto the couch, holding his belly that had to be aching from the strain.

The moment the statement sunk in, practically everyone on his team was gasping for breath, doubled over or wheezing from laughter. Even Shiro. Lance wanted the ground to open up and swallow him whole.

“Oh my god!”, Pidge was cackling from somewhere on the floor, out of breath, “I cannot believe that mister ‘I-see-therefore-I-flirt’ is actually the blushiest virgin of them all!”

His squawked “I resent that!” did not help his case at all, sending them all into renewed gales of laughter.

Everyone was laughing – safe for Coran and Allura.

Not just that, they seemed frozen in shock, so much that Lance actually was afraid they’d stopped breathing.

“Did I say something wrong?”

The way they both blinked at the same time, startled, was rather comical.

“Let me make this clear: When you cross the ‘bridge’ you are fully capable of interacting and communicating with your environment?”

Lance’s let his head cock to the side in utter befuddlement and going by the expressions on everyone else’s faces he was not the only one not getting what seemed to be issue. Well, except maybe Pidge and Hunk because their brows were furrowed in concentration.

“I mean, yeah, isn’t that what’s supposed to happen?”

Coran cleared his throat.

“If I were being honest, all that would be supposed to happen to a physical body travelling back in the time-stream, would be it disintegrating down to its last atom.”

Lance gave a terrified squeak.

“But since you are still with us and shall remain for quite some time, let us say that though it is not supposed to happen it is definitely a very interesting turn of events.”

Lance was relieved to see that he wasn’t the only one put off by how sunnily Coran had delivered that piece of information, Shiro looking slightly concerned and Keith’s eyes bugging, the whites growing more pronounced. Lance felt slightly bad for being the cause of so much confusion and deeply worrisome theorization about painful ways to die but, boy, he once again lamented the lack of a camera in space.

Allura made a small sound, drawing the attention back to her.

“Is there anything, anything else, you can tell us?”

Lance did what he could to reconstruct that first dream. He remembered the pain he had felt, not just in his own body but when he had crossed that threshold to whatever universe or timeline existed there. He could almost feel the headache again, searing and painful and paralyzing, making writhe on a bed. He remembered Allura, her warm touch and gentle kiss, her kind murmurs and…

His eyes flew open, him having closed them while delving back into the memory and they snapped to Allura, her own blowing wide when she caught his expression.

“Brother. You called me your brother.”

Whatever those words triggered, it unleashed a torrent on emotions on her face, more than he would have ever thought he would see both on a single person and in such a short amount of time. It finally settled on pure, unbridled disbelief.

Coran hovered at her side, worried and with his arms ready to accommodate her if need be but his purple eyes had not once strayed from Lance.

“Marvelous.” He whispered faintly.

There was a shift in Allura, starting from her posture to the sudden gleam overtaking her eyes as she turned to Coran a sudden smile stretching her lips.

“Coran, do you know what that means?”

Never ever had Lance heard her be this gleeful before. It was as if, in that very moment, every worry and every problem of the universe had evaporated.

“This might disprove the Gounerversian theorem.”

She was beaming up at her advisor whose whole face only showed complete and utter wonder.

“I would not be so rash to question it in its entirety your Majesty, but it would indeed disprove his idea that foreign quintessence cannot, in fact, be passed on without a conduct.”

It did nothing about the radiance of Allura’s smile. Her hands had clasped Coran’s tightly but not out of a need to console but to share her obvious exhilaration.

“She was right, Coran.”, her voice was full of worship and warmth “All this time she was right.”

There was something touching about the twinkle in those old eyes.

“She was indeed.”

Lance was all for sweet moments and stuff, it was impossible to get around it in a family where the female half would in one way or another get the males to sit down and watch movies of their choosing, some of which were definitely on the more sentimental side, but right now Lance’s already strained patience snapped.

“Uh, guys?”

The two Alteans as well as the rest of the team startled like deers at his loud exclamation, looking at him as he deliberately crossed his arms and slouched back, glaring at them without real heat.

“I’m all happy for you getting to talk about science and all but maybe it was time you kind of explained what’s going on, because right now I’m not in the mood!”

Keith gave him a dry look: “Says the guy who spent the last two weeks beating around the bush.”

Shiro was the only thing stopping him from clobbering the mullet. Though honestly, his leader might have just saved him from a bruised behind and ego as well as a trip to the pod.

“Calm down,” he admonished, only laying off of Lance once he was back sitting on the couch. He did turn to the Alteans though. “But I agree with Lance, it would be nice if you could share with us, seeing as you know more than we do.”

Hunk jumping up and agreeing was kind of fun to watch. It always brought a smile to Lance’s face watching his best friend getting into something and asking all the question he could with only one gulp of air. As long as he wasn’t talking himself into a panic attack it was fine.

When he finally came to the question of who exactly they had seen in the picture earlier, Lance found himself glad he would not have to repeat it.

A silent conversation they could not follow was unfurling before them as Allura’s and Coran’s eyes met. It was fascinating and equally frustrating to watch.

Finally, they seemed to have reached some sort of agreement, Coran being the first one to speak.

“If our theory is correct and considering what Lance has just told us, he has accessed the time long before the war between Altea and the Galran Empire broke out.”

There was an audible gasp coming from Pidge. Everyone else was too engrossed into what followed to really react. Coran had the pad showing the children again, smiles frozen.

“Kin and Kra were to become Princess Allura’s advisors under my tutelage and would have if circumstances had allowed.”

There was a sudden lull as Coran fell silent and Allura spared him any scrutiny as she took over seamlessly.

“And though I may be King Alfor’s only daughter, I was not his only descendant.”

There was steel in her eyes, but it was hot and molten. A spark showing resolve and the wish to protect, although Lance could not really tell what it was she wanted to protect.

“Until I became of age, I had a younger brother. His name was Cae.”

Another beat of silence, one broken by a tentative question from Hunk.

“Your brother… is he…”

“Cae died at a young age.” She had to take a deep breath, eyes infinitely sad and haunted as she said “He was very sick. It was a wonder he lived for as long as he did.”

It was as if a missing piece had been slotted into place.

“Are you saying” Lance began and his voice broke midway “that whenever I sleep I get stuck in your _dead brother’s head_?”

Everyone had twitched at his shrill cry but Lance really did not care right now. This was freaking him out on more levels than he cared to explain.

Coran took pity on him, maybe also because he knew of Lance’s unease about anything that permeated the paranormal and death.

“No. Despite Lord Cae not being alive at our current placement in time, your mind must have reached out to a point where he is still residing amongst his loved ones. I cannot explain how but it seems like your mind has latched onto him specifically.”

That did little about reassuring Lance.

“This is exactly the kind of shit that creeps me out.” he whined faintly, raking his hands through his hair.

He really wanted to scream, to let go off the confusion and fear and unhappiness and stress and exhaustion that he could feel rising up inside him quickly and uncontrollably, wanting to break to the surface.

His distress was bad enough to alert Blue, the concern she projected drowned out by her instantaneous attempt at soothing him.

“I think we should leave it at this.”

Like everyone else, Lance was surprised by Shiro’s quiet proposition. He was looking at all of them, grey eyes assessing and earnest.

“This has been a long day and unless we address the immediate problem of Lance being unable to rest, I would propose postponing this particular issue to another date.”

It made sense and honestly Lance would be ready to do almost _anything_ to be able to drop the subject and go to sleep right about now, despite knowing full well that that was but a distant dream. He mouthed his thanks, although he was not sure Shiro had noticed.

It seemed to take the Alteans a moment to wrap their head around the idea of interrupting their work right now, until Coran exhaled, his moustache fluttering.

“Of course, you are right.” He got up, prompting Lance to do the same, the blanket being shed onto the sofa with a bit more reluctance than he’d like to admit “If you’d follow me, we can go and see what we can do about your sleeping troubles.”

“I’ll come along.” Pidge decided, joining them on their way to the door “Maybe I can help you figure things out.”

Coran acknowledged their decision with a nod and led them both out.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We all have to thank my father for this chapter. I only wanted him to help me out with properly describing sciency stuff and then we started having 2+ hours in-depth discussion about this story and its universe and its laws and yadda yadda yadda...
> 
> Anyway, my dad is my very personal Coran and simply amazing and deserves most of the credit for this chapter!


	5. CAELUM - THE CHISEL

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Coran's scanning, Allura's planning and Lance is realizing that he and the princess have something in common.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all, I wanted to thank everybody for commenting and for having been so patient with me. I’m happy to present you the next chapter of this story. But after season 2 having aired, a few explanations might be in order first.  
> I have changed the tags on this works since it will now very clearly deviate from canon.  
> The first chapter also has been edited to be more canon compliant.  
> I have also taken note of the confirmation of Hunk’s Samoan heritage and I would like to say that while in future works I will be sure to include it, many scenes that I have planned out/ written already were heavily built on the fanon assumption that Hunk was Hawaiian. As it would have demanded a great amount of change in the character dynamics in this story, I decided to keep Hawaiian Hunk in this work. I do not mean to disrespect his canon heritage but I put a lot of time and effort into research and it would be a shame to see it go to waste. It would also be more disrespectful if I wrote about Samoan Hunk, knowing next to nothing about this culture.  
> The same applies for Keith, whom many had depicted as being Asian and more specifically Korean. Many plot points in this fic address this heritage. While Keith in fanon now being depicted as Texan must not necessarily rule out his father having been Asian, I have yet to see how this might work out in this fic.  
> I hope you understand.  
> While this fic will follow the main events of season 2, it will not be a verbatim retelling of the events.  
> Thank you, for having been so patient and for having read the AN this far! I wish you a good read!

Once the door closed, Allura could feel some of the tension bleeding away from the remaining Paladins. Hunk had loosened up minutely, drawing his hands to his face and massaging his temples with the expression of someone who has had enough.

Shiro and Keith were having a quiet exchange but she refrained from eavesdropping for once. She also doubted that she was in the right frame of mind to concentrate on anything else but the thoughts rushing through her head.

Allura unclenched her hands, although it did little in terms of calming her down.

Their morning had begun so unremarkably and now, here she was, contemplating theories of time travel and how likely it had been for the Blue Paladin and her brother to haven gotten involved in this. This being the very proof that time travel without physical displacement was no longer a mere, unreachable fantasy.

Her fingers could not remain still, driving her to take notes on her pad to make a plan of action and to clear her head in the process.

The moment she had laid eyes on the graphs, Allura never would have dreamed of the idea that they had a member of their team capable of travelling the time-stream. She had not been the one to come up with the idea, opting to explain the twins’ image with heightened senses, allowing Lance to pick up tiny signals coming from the royal advisor, as such enabling Lance’s mind to interpret these and put them together like a puzzle.

That was what it was like for Alteans at the very least – finely enough attuned to their surroundings to pick up on details that could allow them draw conclusions that, without explanation, let them appear more like omniscient beings to other alien species: more often than not, those that were not familiar with Alteans in the first place.

Of course, that was more of an exaggeration, Alteans were just as prone to error as any race in the universe but the impression had been stuck in many heads. And Allura could not deny that with some members of their culture gaining some rather disconcerting skills in the field of quintessence manipulation after years of experience, the latter could appear like godly entities … even among the Alteans.

Yet the moment Coran had hinted at a different, rather unbelievable explanation Allura had not been able to dismiss it.

As she had already shared with the humans, their research on time travel was prfound and had been considered just as important as research on fuels for instance.

Lance was the first known organism to Alteans to have breached the barrier of time. She could feel her lips curling into a wistful smile. If her mother were still here, she would have been beyond ecstatic, would have kept them up all night explaining intricately all the theories Lance’s simple recounting of his mishap in the wormhole had now disproven, or at the very least, shaken in their foundations. It would have fallen to Allura to write down all of her theories because more than once enthusiasm had turned her mother’s grip into a death-trap for poor, unsuspecting pads.

“Okay”, her Yellow Paladin exclaimed loudly, jumping to his feet and startling them “I’m gonna go change and then fix us something to eat, if that’s alright with you.”

They were all nodding mutely. His finger pointed at Shiro, expression friendly but laced with a playful challenge: “Today I’ll have you help me, so you either get ready or wait for me here.”

It was an open secret that their leader was banned from the kitchen, after a rather disastrous attempt at making himself something to eat during another sleepless night. Whatever the charred remains had been, the smoke rising from it had alerted all of them about a fire within the Castle.

When they had finally arrived, they had been greeted by the sight of a dishevelled, wide-eyed Shiro and kitchen utensils that had been burned and deformed beyond recognition.

Ever since, Hunk had made it his mission to teach the older man how to to do simple dishes. They soon had to realize that Keith’s muttered objections were obviously born from years of having had to deal with the man’s complete inability to not turn foods of inedible chunks of carbon, after Shiro had managed to brew one of the most disgusting beverages Allura had ever consumed.

Keith had been suspiciously absent when their leader had eagerly distributed the cups. Lance had cursed his name, as he lay writhing on one of the couches along with Shiro’s other victims - Allura included.

But he had been getting better: the last time he had tried his hands at something Hunk had called ‘scrambled eggs’ and althoiugh it had looked far from appetizing, it had been safe to consume.

The man made a sound of agreement while Keith excused himself, adding that he wanted to hit the training deck. They did not stop him, knowing by now that it was the young man’s way of clearing his head.

Allura and Shiro remained.

“What do you think of this?”

Allura blinked at the Black Paladin, his question coming sooner than she had expected.

“To tell you the truth I am not sure myself.”

This revelation entrailed so many problems and questions. The first one being that the bond was affecting Lance and hindering him in his duty as a Paladin. What did it mean for her brother? Why her brother? Would Lance’s presence in the past affect the present? Or was he actually caught in an alternate universe? Was it a universe brought into existence because of Lance’s presence? How was Lance still alive when Alteans had died at the attempt of time travel? Was it a long-term hazard to his physical and mental health?

Too many issues that had to be addressed but which they lacked solid data of.

Shiro seemed lost in thought, surely turning the same questions as her over in his head.

She cleared the list she had put together thus far, feeling she had started off the wrong tangent initially. She would send this new one to Coran while he gathered data with Lance and Pidge.

“How long do you think it will take for us to figure this out?”

Allura stopped at “neuronal scans” when she looked back up at Shiro, His arms were crossed over his chest but his robotic fingers were rapidly dancing over his biceps. It suddenly hit Allura just how worried he actually was.

He had, of course, every right to be. The last attack from the Galra had been too sudden, had happened in an area they had deemed safe and free of their enemy’s influence. One of their Paladins being out of commission was a luxury they could not afford in such a precarious situation.

“I cannot say.” She admitted earnestly, making her voice steady and full of confidence, although she was still shaken. But Shiro needed her strength and reassurance when one of his team was in a situation out of his jurisdiction “Coran will need to run a variety of tests and depending on the results he gets many more may follow. While they are occupied with finding a solution for Lance’s problem, I will see to it that the Galra do not find us.”

They knew that there was no guarantee but she would do everything in her power to buy them as much time as they needed.

Shiro let his head fall on the couch’s backrest. The sigh escaping him shifted the plating of armour noticeably.

“It sounds so unbelievable.”

Allura believed she knew what he meant.

“If it is any consolation: I feel much the same way.”

At his questioning look, she added: “We may have done extensive research but it was nothing as concrete as what is happening to Lance.”

It was uncharted territory.

“I cannot tell what consequences may arise from his condition. There have been many theories about tampering with the time-stream, some painting outcomes more disastrous than the next.”

It made Shiro pause, staring at a corner of the room intently. As she watched him, Allura noticed the patches under his eyes, almost as dark as Lance’s. Only her upbringing as a diplomat stopped her from sighing out loud.

“Have your nightmares not abated?”

It was somewhat amusing to see such a grown man startle like a thief caught in the act but Allura’s humour faded slightly as the Black Paladin’s lips remained firmly shut. She guessed he knew it was a lost cause, his silence betraying more than words could.

“Anything concrete? Or are they still confusing you?”

“It still does not make much sense.” At least he was wise enough to know when a battle was lost. He leaned back slightly, arms still crossed over his chest, eyes unfocused. “I can’t say whether it is a memory or … or my brain trying to process what has been happening to me.”

Allura nodded and left it at that. It had been worrisome when Shiro had become agitated inside the pod, face drawn into grimaces as dreams and memories disrupted what should have been peaceful rest. When he had come out both of the machine and the sleep-like state, he had been disoriented, talking about a lab and pain in his arm.

Although the Paladins all had shared worried glances, Allura had not missed the paleness washing over Keith’s face as realization struck. But except these first impressions, nothing concrete had stuck with the Black Paladin.

Allura and Coran should have expected the dreams, or maybe nightmares, but alas there was nothing that could be done safe providing an open ear to the man.

About to continue on working out their next moves and steps regarding the matter of Lance, Allura was caught off guard by the hesitant question directed at her.

“But princess, are you and Coran alright?”

She looked up at him and fell short of words. She had had a feeling that the question might come up eventually but she had yet to find a satisfying answer.

 _Was_ she alright? Was _Coran_?

She made sure her expression betrayed nothing of her inner turmoil and dismay, having quieted down over the time it took to walk to the common room, only to be revived when Lance let out that crucial piece of information.

When he told them he was connected to Cae, even if he himself was not aware of that fact.

The loss of Altea was still fresh. The loss of her father still took her breath away at times with how much it hurt to miss him.

But Cae had died a long time ago; when the war had not yet put an end to the life she had known on Altea, when there still had been time to mourn the death of a loved one.

And as cruel as it may sound to an outsider, Allura had had years to prepare herself for that day.

But now, the old ache resurfaced, quiet and dull. Maybe it was affecting her more because it came so unexpected.

Doubtlessly, Coran felt the same way.

She dredged up a miniscule smile for her Paladin’s sake, whose eyes were filled with genuine concern and sympathy.

“It is difficult, “ she acknowledged, Shiro’s posture relaxing slightly as she allowed him insight into her thoughts, as small as it may be, “but at the same time, I feel like this might be a chance for us to seize.”

She meant it and the confidence behind those words was sincere.

It was obvious that Shiro wished to inquire further but at the last moment he, instead, gave her a nod, getting up and disappearing into the kitchen area where Hunk would join him shortly.

Allura resumed her typing. Destiny had brought the Paladins to this Castle. And it had to be destiny that had connected them to the past.

It was up to them to make the best of it.

~

Lance had never been forced to undergo as many tests as he was right now. Not even the Garrison had been this thorough and diligent while testing their cadets on their airworthiness.

He’d had his blood drawn, electrodes stuck to his temples, been scanned over with a hand-held device that beeped rather shrilly and worryingly in Lance’s humble opinion and been asked more medical and incredibly _invasive_ questions than he could ever remember answering – from allergies, to past illnesses in his family, to his nutritional habits before and after having left Earth.

Lance guessed that without Pidge, who would translate whatever Coran was prattling on about into _English_ , he would have been completely at a loss as to what the Altean was getting at. Coran may be a genius in his own right, but he still had a bad habit of forgetting that not everyone shared his vast knowledge on xenobiology and unexpected trivia.

“No, Coran, I have no idea what kind of drink those Xardevians gave me before the wormhole swallowed me.”

Okay, he really should make an effort to sound less peeved, Coran looking a little hurt by his brash answer (even Pidge was throwing him a reproachful look), but Lance was getting both hungry and tired. Well, more than he already was anyway.

“Sorry, but can we just take a break maybe? Feels like we’ve been at this for hours.”

Coran’s face softened a touch and he nodded.

“Soon, Lance. Just a few more questions and one last scan and you’ll be able to go see if Hunk is ready with dinner.”

So they did their best to hurry up the process without sacrificing any vital information.

At last, Lance was asked to put his hands on a small console sticking out of the ground on a single slim stand, fanning out his fingers as much as he could on the bean-shaped panel. It’s cool, plastic surface glowed golden where skin and polymer met.

He and Pidge both were looking at it in fascination, Pidge’s fingers twitching with the barely suppressed need to take the machinery apart.

“Woah.”

Lance almost lost his composure just looking at Pidge’s face, mouth a perfectly round o-shape. They and Greg could go and open a club for people who looked adorable when you would least expect them to. His older brother was horrible enough to use it to his advantage though. Pidge preferred to sass their way into getting whatever they wanted.

“Hey Coran, what does this thing do exactly?”, Lance asked on Pidge’s behalf, knowing that while their programmer could not voice anything in their muted reverence, they surely would be able to listen to and understand whatever Coran might explain.

He did not even need to look up, two fingers working on some dials and levers that only he could see on his pad.

“This instrument measures a life-form’s quintessence levels and traces the flow in its body. It can even redirect it with the right settings but this would be a task better left to its inventor.”

Lance’s fingers started tingling, as if the mice had decided to scuttle up and down his arms with their tiny paws. It was a challenge keeping his hands still.

“And who would that be?”

Coran’s eyes sparkled, his moustache accentuating his smirk rather nicely: “Well, wouldn’t you want to know.”

Lance was decidedly not pouting.

“Do not worry yourself, you will be bound to find out soon anyway.”

After a few minutes though there came a deep, thoughtful hum from Coran and Lance did not like the way his forehead wrinkled.

“Is something wrong?”

It seemed to take Coran a moment to decide how to appease him, slightly opening his mouth several times as if wanting to answer and deciding against it at the last second, before he gave a short huff and met Lance’s eyes.

“Considering your circumstances I would have to say that a lot of things are disconcerting but I will admit that these readings are puzzling.”

Lance was not sure whether the little pause at the end had been because Coran had been looking for the right word or because there was something that he did not want to share with them. Lance decided that he wanted to trust Coran.

“Yeah, fair enough I guess…”

The light on the console died but Lance flapped his hands in an attempt to get the prickling to stop.

Coran shooed them off, both of them, although it took some time to get Pidge to accept that despite the very interesting discoveries the day had brought they still had to complete their duties.

“Who in this day and age thinks that laying out plates is more important than studying a neuronal anomaly!”

“Civilized people.”

Brown eyes glared at him and Lance relished in the fact that the comeback had been that good to shut them up as the two of them followed the very enticing smell of roasted fish.

~

Hunk was a good friend. Scratch that, he was one of the greatest people Lance had the pleasure of knowing and going by the general relaxed atmosphere around the table he was not the only coming to this realization.

How someone could whip up a complete meal for seven people with a bare minimum of ingredients spoke of their level of skill – and if Hunk was anything, it was a genius chef who had done amazing work with the stuff the merpeople had offered them in thanks.

Pidge sat sprawled in their seat, arms lazily draped over their stomach looking as comfortable as a cat ready to take a nap. Shiro and Keith sat together speaking about a way to defeat the training bot Keith was still stuck on in training, Hunk giving them critical looks as their plates took too long to empty.

Allura had the mice keeping her company at her end of the table, although she had yet to budge and pass them any food. Lance swore they were glancing at him speculatively every few seconds now, staring longingly at the food he had put aside specifically for them under Hunk’s all too watchful eye.

Soon…

Before his plan could come to fruition though, the doors to the dining room opened to reveal the man whom they’d been missing for most of the evening.

“Coran,” Allura called, catching the advisor’s attention “would you like to eat? Hunk was kind enough to keep your food warm.”

Their friend was obviously distracted. He stood a moment, staring at the princess as if uncomprehending before clearing his throat and straightening his hunched shoulders.

“Of course.” He replied, then inclining his head towards Hunk “Thank you, number two but I’m afraid that it will have to wait.”

They stared at him, suddenly alert and Lance could feel a faint flutter disturbing his rather full stomach unpleasantly.

Shiro was quick to ask for clarification, although Lance had some sort of idea what this was going to be about.

Coran’s shoulders slumped barely but still noticeably as he sat down in one of the empty chairs closest to Lance.

His eyes sought out the Cuban’s, and going by the intensity of the man’s gaze Lance was not going to like what he was going to hear.

“After running our test results through our programmes, I came across a rather worrying discovery.”

He paused, maybe to make sure Lance was still following. He gave a shaky nod, shortly looking towards Hunk who seemed rather uncomfortable and anxious.

“As you explained to us earlier, you suffer from lasting effects from the wormhole such as tiredness and a feeling of perpetual coldness, is that correct?”

“I..uh, yeah.” It was hard not to cringe at how small his voice sounded.

Coran’s mouth twitched but Lance could not tell what kind of expression he was wearing, but the older man seemed to emit nervous energy despite sitting perfectly still, most of his body turned towards his current patient.

The next words seemed to cause him physical pain: “After carefully checking the results, it became apparent that your quintessence level was rather low. Although it might have been attributed to the fact that humans in general have a much lower level to begin with, that notion was abandoned when it became evident that your levels had dropped, marginally though, in the short time we had you hooked up to the Quinidav.”

Lance was not sure what kind of message he was supposed to get from that, but his gut feeling told him that this was a bit more serious than just insomnia.

He couldn’t even snark back at Keith when the Asian asked (tone surprisingly tense): “And what exactly‘s that supposed to mean?”

Coran gave a short sigh.

“Lance’s quintessence is being siphoned out of him continuously, which by your Earthen terms would mean that his life force is being drawn from him slowly but steadily.”

Lance wished he hadn’t eaten as much food as he had. He could taste the tang of acid and thickly swallowed it down.

The table practically exploded.

“Coran, are you sure?”

“Holy Quiznak!”

“No!”

“Is Lance going to die?”

Everyone’s head whipped around to Hunk. He was the definition of ‘bordering on a panic-attack’ with his hands wringing madly and eyes that were too wide and scared and Lance felt his heart break a little at the sight.

Coran’s hand, even when covered by a glove, was a warm and comforting weight on his shoulder.

“No” and he sounded so sure it was almost overwhelming “now that we are aware of the problem we can look for a way to remedy it, maybe even reverse it.”

The air in the room lost some of its nervous edge, people around the table suddenly seeming to breathe easier but the there was no longer any of the carefree atmosphere from a few minutes ago.

Lance felt bad about it. He was the reason for the sombre atmosphere and for a moment he wished Coran had just taken him aside instead of barging in and dropping this bomb on them. But looking back on the past few weeks, Lance guessed that this was his way of ensuring Lance could not try and keep any more secrets from the team.

Shiro was suddenly kneeling in front of him, face grim and mouth drawn into a pale line completely parallel with his scar, robotic arm resting on Lance’s knee.

“You holding up alright?”

Lance dredged up a lopsided, unsteady grin.

“Could be better.”

Shiro nodded. Had the bags under his eyes always been that pronounced? Before he could contemplate that observation, Shiro was already standing up and addressing Coran.

“What do we have to do?”

It became pretty obvious why the royal advisor had been gone for so long, seeing as he consulted a pad none of them had noticed him carrying around, seemingly going through his findings: “I already looked into possible ways of slowing down the process. It will involve a lot of work on a tight schedule and the mind-meld-devices but it should be feasible.”

Lance gave him the most grateful smile he could muster and saw it returned.

“Alright, alright” Hunk announced loudly as it became apparent he had gotten himself back together, Pidge’s hand still resting on one of his wrists, even as the bigger paladin started getting agitated “But you still did not answer my question. Like, is this a mortal condition? And how long do we have?”

Coran paused his scrolling and tapping, expression guarded.

“Any lifeform can regenerate Quintessence but it generally takes a long time, usually in proportion to its complexity and size. In Lance’s case, if this had gone on for a few more weeks unsupervised, he might have ended up in a coma and then...”

Coran needn’t spell it out for them to understand.

Lance felt all his blood rush down to the sole of his feet. So much for his little sleeping problem not being dangerous at all.

“Oh.”

Hunk was practically ready to pounce on him. His whole frame seemed to swell with anger.

“Are you serious! Oh. That’s all you’ve got to say for yourself?”

Lance turned to him, a new kind of numbness not resulting from the cold making everything seem to pass in slow motion.

“I mean… oh shit?”

Hunk’s roar of indignation made the mice scatter away in a panic while the bigger Castle residents all jerked, safe for their hacker who looked far too smug for their own good.

Once Hunk was done, he plopped back down in his seat with Pidge giving him a single pat on his shoulder.

“Feeling better?”

“Much better.”

“Told you so.” Their smiled turned into a cheeky grin before removing their hand.

The evening turned into a long discussion, one that Lance only followed partially. He knew that maybe he should be listening to all Coran, Pidge and Hunk and even Allura were talking over but he felt restless, felt like he needed to do something mundane or homey like cleaning the table.

Keith was handing him whatever was closest to him, throwing him a questioning glance just like everyone else. Lance understood. But it wasn’t like he wasn’t listening at all and it wasn’t like the little groups was trying to be quiet. But after the first fifteen minutes it had devolved into a hubbub full of technical and physics jargon as well some thrown-in Altean. And Lance had made sure his immediate presence was not required anymore once he had been instructed about all the changes awaiting him.

His condition would have to be monitored. He would have to be open about how he was feeling and whether he felt capable to go through training. And much to his surprise, he would learn about Altea and the royal family.

“Pardon me for stating it this bluntly, but I cannot let you roam the Castle, no matter what universe, in good conscious knowing that you are a stranger in my brother’s body.”

As much as he wanted to be offended by Allura’s words, it was only logical.

Shiro’s frown intensified as he sought Allura’s gaze: “Aren’t we trying to stop it from happening in the first place? If you are trying to resolve this as soon as possible why waste time and energy on it?”

Lance stilled as did the rest of them. He had a point and Lance found himself intrigued: “You know? Shiro’s right. This whole dream business will be over soon, won’t it?”

He gave tiny laugh, with none of the mirth behind it to make it genuine. The smile dropped entirely when both Allura and Coran took a moment too long to answer.

“It will be a gradual process.” Coran confessed “Do not misunderstand Lance, we will see to it that your Quintessence level stabilizes but tampering with the connection right now, when there is little to no explanation or data on it, could prove fatal not only to you but to young Lord Cae as well, should he still be alive in this other reality.”

All he could give was a small sound of astonishment, before simply nodding under everyone’s watchful eye. The last plate he was holding was rotating between his restless fingers, uncaring of the few dried crumbs that fell onto his shoes in the process.

“I… I see.”

He didn’t though. He just wanted this to be over already.

Allura’s firm tone got his attention again as he watched her leaning forward a little on the table. The blue of her irises was shining with resolve.

“I understand that this situation is unpleasant but please consider that we are talking about my family. And no matter what time or universe, I value my family’s wellbeing just as much my Paladins’.”

It still was incredible how much authority she could command even without her armour and with the tight bun she had put her hair into coming slowly undone and framing her face. And in the way her jaw was set and the way she dared him to protest, he recognized the same protectiveness he displayed whenever his younger siblings used to get into trouble with the local bullies.

The thought that he and the princess could have something in common, made him feel lighter somehow.

“Okay,” he gave her a cheeky grin and a wink “I’ll make it my top priority just for you.”

There were groans and flat stares and Lance relished in the sound of his teammates getting annoyed by the bad attempt at flirting. The air had grown so thick with tension it had been suffocating.

Allura gave him a very unimpressed look.

“I’m serious, I promise.”

“Fine” she sighed and the discussion resumed.

Lance knew he would have to go over the main points with Coran at a later date again but slowly, he could feel himself dragging, making it difficult to process everything and retain this onslaught of information.

The hope that these symptoms might soon be gone almost made him dizzy with relief.

Finally, Hunk and Coran got up, startling Lance who had been drooping the moment he had sat back into his seat.

“I’ll come and help you.” Hunk offered to the older Altean, getting up and dusting off his hands as he joined the duo, making a quick detour to the kitchen to emerge with a closed container probably containing Coran’s meal and cutlery “I can help with the wiring and the adjustments of all the components.”

Lance blinked wearily, realizing he must have missed some part of the conversation but he was too spent to ask for clarification right now.

Coran gave a nod, smile curling his moustache. Hunk nodded back before he shortly turned on them to point a finger at Lance and Keith equally: “You guys won’t leave the kitchen a battle field again, will you?”

Lance gulped at the dangerous glint in his eyes, suddenly feeling wide awake again. The last time he and Keith had been in charge of cleaning up, they had had one of their little spats which in turn had resulted in a food fight with leftovers, which in turn had transformed the kitchen into a disgusting war zone, which in turn had led to Hunk slipping once he had entered and resulted in a massive sermon from both him and Shiro when the older Paladin had come looking for Keith.

No chance they were repeating that. Lance shuddered at the memory.

“We’re good!”

He and Keith stared at each other, both having shouted at the same time.

Hunk’s smile came easy and was very reassuring.

For the first time in weeks, Lance felt unrestrained hope.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little treat for your patience and for having come this far!
> 
> "The ache was back, crawling up from the tips of his fingers to the sole of his feet, all-encompassing.  
> It wasn’t crippling and Lance saw it as an invitation.  
> Opening his eyes, he was met with a domed ceiling - there was no risk of confusion. His elbows sank into the mat as Lance went to sit up. The lights flooded the room and Lance winced as it drove needles through his skull.  
> Or more precisely through the skull of Lord Cae, younger brother of Allura of Altea, son of King Alfor and his anamatem Lady Szep."
> 
> Have a swell night everyone!


End file.
